When we talk about monumental engineering works, we usually refer to large and/or uniquely shaped steel or concrete structures. However, we often overlook the staggering volumes of earth that are routinely moved when building roads or railways. Let’s delve into this little-known area of engineering.
During the construction of many common infrastructures, such as roads, entire mountains are moved or cut down and, as a result, new geographical formations emerge. Let’s take a look, as an example, at the statistics related to roads in Spain:
The country has an extensive network of more than 165,000 km of roads. If we calculate an average of 100,000 m3 of earth moved per km, we find the astonishing figure that, for their construction, earthworks equivalent to more than 3.5 times Mount Everest has been necessary.
Even more impressive are the quantities of earth used in the construction of large dams. Machinery such as the Hitachi EX8000-6, with a shovel capacity of up to 42 m3 of earth, is used for this purpose. This huge excavator has to be transported in parts and assembled on site.
With a length of 24 m, a width of 16 m and a height of 12 m, the Hitachi EX8000-6 weighs 700 tonnes and is equipped with a 1,000-horsepower engine. Its dimensions are so gigantic that it is difficult to conceive them mentally. Imagine that this machine can pick up 10 cars at once and move a staggering 50,000 m3 of earth, equivalent to about 500 Olympic swimming pools, in just one 8-hour working day.
