Methods and Techniques in Highway Design

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Civil ENGINEERING
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Task 1
Earthwork
Earthwork is the process through which the soil is excavated, transported and placed somewhere
else to pave way for the construction of engineering projects (Trenter, 2017, p. 328). There are
three process which are involved in the earthwork process and they are;
Excavating of the soil
Loading and transporting of the soil
Placing and compacting of the transported soil.
Depending on the resources available, site conditions and the amount of work to be done, various
equipment will be used in earthwork process (Aldiss, 2018, p. 72).
Equipment used in earthwork process
For the given scenario different equipment will be used to carry out different activities. The
equipment have been grouped into three categories i.e. Excavating, transporting and compacting
equipment.
Equipment excavation
These are the equipment that will be used for excavating the ground and they include;
Bulldozers, power shovels, draglines, backhoes, scrapers and clamshells (Boettger, 2012, p. 285).
Equipment used for transportation

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These refers to the equipment that will be used to transport the excavated soil from the point
of excavation to the point of placement and they will include; Dumpers, tippers, trucks, belt
conveyors and graders (Hugo, 2015, p. 39).
Equipment used for compaction
These are equipment that will be used to compact the placed soil and they will include;
smooth wheel rollers, sheep foot rollers, pneumatic tired rollers and the vibratory roller
equipment.
Earthwork techniques
Different approaches and techniques will be used during the earthwork process some of the
techniques that will be employed include; Levelling, U-cut, Borrow and cut to crossbill
Methods used for measuring the earthwork: Bank measurement volume, compacted volume and
loose measuring technique
Methods to create complex foundation
There are many types of foundations that can be used for the given project depending on the
factors such as cost, ground conditions, the available materials and the nature of the load to be
supported. Different foundations will be adopted will either be deep or the shallow foundations.
The shallow foundations will be used where the load imposed on the structure is relatively
low as compared to bearing capacity of the soil Where else the deep foundations are used
where the bearing capacity of the surface soil is insufficient to support the imposed loads
and thus there is need for the loads to be transferred to deep layers which have a higher bearing
capacity (Practice, 2014, p. 41).

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Method used for pilling works
The piles will be installed through the drilling of the vertical holes into the soil by the use of a
bore pilling machine. This will be achieved by the use of the pile drivers. The pilling work will
be preferred in regions that have unstable surface soil. Different techniques can be used for
pilling works depending on the material, function and the installation procedure (Ballard, 2012, p.
720) .The following are the different types of the pile foundations methods;
Based on use or function
Friction piles
Soil compaction piles
Load bearing piles
End piles
Sheet piles
Based on material and construction methods
Timber piles
Steel piles
Concrete piles
Work of drainage
The Drainage work will involve activities such as:
Diverting runoff of the storm water