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Earthworks are the embankments and cuttings that allow a railway to maintain a certain line, level and grade through the landscape. Earth embankments consist of an engineered bank of earth that carries the railway above the natural ground. A cutting is used to carry the railway through ground with a natural level above the line of the railway. Modern (post 1960s) earthworks are carefully engineered to perform well. However, many railways run on earthworks that were constructed over 100 years ago without the use of mechanised plant. The quality of construction of older earthworks was often poor compared with present-day engineering practice. Ageing of the earthwork structures, and the greater demands of heavier and faster trains and climatic change, means that earthworks suffer ultimate and serviceability failures that can present operational difficulties. Older earthworks that fail or do not perform well require maintenance and repair, and sometimes complete replacement. This chapter explores the main engineering considerations for modern earthworks, and the challenges associated with older earthworks including their modes of failure and upgrade and repair.

This study proposes a framework for Earthwork Ontology (EW-Onto) to support and enhance data exchange in the project and the efficient decision-making in the planning and execution phases.

The development of EW-Onto started from defining the concepts and building taxonomies for earthwork operations and equipment following the METHONTOLOGY approach. In addition, several rules have been extracted from safety codes and implemented as SWRL rules. The ontology has been implemented using Protégé. The consistency of EW-Onto has been checked and it has been evaluated using a survey.

The assessment of EW-Onto by experts indicates an adequate level of consensus with the framework, as an initial step for explicit knowledge exchanges within the earthwork domain.

The use of an ontology within the earthwork domain can help: (1) link and identify the relationships between concepts, define earthwork semantics, and classify knowledge in a hierarchical way accepted by experts and end-users; (2) facilitate the management of earthwork operations and simplify information exchange and interoperability between currently fragmented systems; and (3) increase the stakeholders' knowledge of earthwork operations through the provision of the information, which is structured in the context of robust knowledge.

This paper proposes a framework for Earthwork Ontology (EW-Onto) to support and enhance data exchange in the project and the efficient decision-making in the planning and execution phases. EW-Onto represents the semantic values of the entities and the relationships, which are identified and formalized based on the basic definitions available in the literature and outlined by experts.

A review of techniques used in industry showed that there is an absence of a formalised, systematic approach to earthworks planning. The techniques used tend to be subjective and time consuming with a heavy reliance given to the experience and knowledge of the planner. This absence of a formalised technique can lead to inaccurate planning and makes explanation of the techniques difficult. This paper describes the development of a new automated approach for use by the planners to generate earthworks activities that overcomes such limitations. As well as creating activity sets in a much shorter time, the ability to compare various sets allows the planner more scope when planning earthworks. The model is able to generate activity sets that are comparable to those generated by a project planner.

The development of communication and artificial intelligence technologies has raised interest in connectivity and increased autonomy of automated earthmoving equipment for earthwork. These changes are motivating work to reduce uncertainties, in terms of improving equipment object detection capability and reducing strikes and accidents on site. The purpose of this study is to illustrate industrial drivers for automated earthwork systems; identify the specific capabilities which make the transformation happen; and finally determine use cases that create value for the system. These three objectives act as components of a technology roadmap for automated and connected earthwork and can guide development of new products and services.

This paper used a text mining approach in which the required data was captured through a structured literature review, and then expert knowledge was used for verification of the results.

Automated and connected earthwork can enhance construction site and its embraced infrastructure, resilience by avoiding human faults during operations. Automating the monitoring process can lead to reliable anticipation of problems and facilitate real-time responses to unexpected situation via connectedness capabilities. Research findings are presented in three sections: industrial perspectives, trends and drivers for automated and connected earthwork; capabilities which are met by technologies; and use cases to demonstrate different capabilities.

This study combines the results of disintegrated and fragmented research in the area of automated and connected earthwork and categorises them under new capability levels. The identified capabilities are classified in three main categories including reliable environmental perception, single equipment decision-making toward safe outcomes and fleet-level safety enhancement. Finally, four different levels of automation are proposed for earthwork technology roadmap.

The archaeological record of small-scale societies is replete with examples of people expending considerable labor to craft both places and objects for communal rituals. Archaeologists often infer these efforts to have been the product of aspiring elites. This chapter focuses instead on the larger community responsible for the construction of places and objects, through a ritual economy analysis of the social logic people use to organize the production of ritual places and paraphernalia. A review of ethnographic and archaeological data suggests that the production of communal ritual places often involves the creation of sociograms, while the production of objects for use within these places encompasses a web of complementary and competitive relations. Two examples of large-scale communal ritual spaces, the early British Neolithic causewayed enclosures and the Ohio Hopewell geometric earthworks, are explored in light of these ethnographic and archaeological patterns.

This paper describes the integration of various models to provide a realistic decision support system for linear project site layout. Initially, the paper describes an investigation to determine the actual methods currently used by project managers and planners. A review of both techniques adopted by the managers and the knowledge acquisition methods employed are included in the paper. Following this, this paper describes the work done to automate the existing systems. This resulted in a system which has been used in practice and has been shown to be a great help to managers. It is based on the traditional method of mass‐haul diagrams used to determine the earthworks activities. A separate simulation and artificial intelligence model of earthworks are described. This will be extended to model linear projects more realistically than does mass‐haul.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of mitigation measures adopted in a scheme of EIA follow-up by examining their performance in reducing geo-environmental impacts in earthwork activities during the Rodoanel southern section construction in São Paulo, Brazil. This environment is fragile in terms of affected watersheds because the highway crosses two important reservoirs that supply most of the metropolitan water demand. Therefore, this research also aims at promoting water quality control.

This study combines complementary sources as evidences in the literature and field checks, tests and monitoring. The methodology was supported by criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures in the case study approach.

The EIA follow-up activities contributed to the maintenance of environmental conditions in the majority of the control points at the end of the construction phase. Water quality parameters were not statistically different before and during the construction of the highway. The choice and arrangement of mitigation measures were successful in ensuring water quality control by avoiding siltation.

A robust scheme for designing and evaluating mitigation measures contributes to the improvement of their effectiveness and is pivotal to the success of the EIA follow-up.

This case study serves as an example for extending EIA follow-up practice in special to the improvement of the design and evaluation of mitigation measures in similar contexts.

This paper aims to present the framework for a model that can be used to estimate the production rate, activity duration, total fuel use, and total pollutants emissions from earthwork activities. A case study and sensitivity analysis for an excavator performing excavations are presented.

The tool is developed by combining the multiple linear regressions (MLR) approach for modeling the productivity with the EPA's NONROAD model. The excavator data were selected to build the productivity model, and emission factors of all type of pollutants from NONROAD model were used to estimate the total fuel use and emissions.

Results indicate that the excavator productivity model had high precision and accuracy, low bias, with trench depth and bucket size are in the model, it can explain 92 per cent variability of productivity rate data, and can be used as the basis for estimating the fuel quantities that will be required and the total expected pollutant emissions for the project.

The estimating tool proposed in this paper will be an effective means for assessing the fuel consumptions and air emissions of earthwork activities and will allow equipment owners or fleet managers, policy makers, and project stakeholders to evaluate their construction projects. The tool will help the contractors to estimate the fuel quantities and pollutant emissions, which would be valuable information for a preliminary environmental assessment of the project.

Although there are already methods and models for estimating productivity rate and emissions for heavy duty diesel (HDD) construction equipment, there currently is not a means for doing all of these at once.

This study aims to investigate the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects.

The study is based on a sample of 101 road construction projects awarded in the West Bank in Palestine over the years 2010-2015. The study investigates the time deviation in total project duration and the deviations in major activities of road construction projects: earthworks, base works and asphalt works. Based on the collected data, regression models are developed to show the relation between actual duration and estimated duration. The study also investigates the effect of project physical characteristics on time deviation through regression analysis. The considered characteristics are: project size, terrain conditions, ground conditions and soil quality. To identify the main factors affecting time deviation, a survey of 40 contractors and 30 consultants was performed.

The study reveals the following: average of time deviations in earthworks = 46.48 per cent, average of time deviation in base works = 29.66 per cent, average of time deviation in asphalt works = 23.43 per cent and average of time deviation in total duration = 47.72 per cent. Regression models that investigate the effect of physical project characteristics (i.e. project size, terrain condition, ground condition and soil quality) on time deviation are discussed. The survey reveals that the top five factors affecting delay in road construction projects are political situation, payments delay by the owner, lack of coordination between construction parties, frequent change orders and unexpected ground condition and terrain.

This study investigates the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects. The study is based on field data collected from 101 road construction projects and a questionnaire survey conducted in the West Bank in Palestine. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations are formulated to control the problem of time deviation in construction projects. Although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.

FOR some years now air‐photography has been acknowledged as a most valuable accession to archaeological research. It has often been said, and with justice, that for the excavation of an ancient site an air‐photograph is practically a necessity. The reason for this is that, when seen from above, the plan of an archaeological site is revealed in a way which is impossible for an observer on the ground. The actual process differs according to the character of the ground itself. Ancient ruins consist either of earthworks, such as banks and ditches, or of foundations of masonry. In either case, the plan appears to a ground observer as a confused jumble that, when seen from above, is revealed for what it really is. Archaeologists have not many opportunities for flying themselves, at any rate in England, where this new branch of study originated and where it has been developed to a far greater extent than abroad. The pilot naturally has other things to think about when he is flying, and it has been suggested that a few words of explanation might be of interest to readers of Aircraft Engineering. There is a fine field here for the owner of a light aeroplane who might welcome some excuse for cross‐country flying, other than the obvious ones. Old England seen from the air is a book that has as yet only been half‐opened; there are still immense possibilities. In order to bring out some of the ways in which air‐photography works, I have described in this article a few typical air‐photographs of sites in Sussex.