3 Tips for Staying on Top of Dirt Balance

Managing dirt balance on a job site can be quite difficult. There is a lot to take into consideration and with plans constantly changing, it can very quickly get out of your control resulting in major cost implications due to import/export costs for dirt. For example, 500,000 cubic yards of remedial grading could influence the balance by 50,000 cubic yards if the soil shrinks/bulks by 10%. If it costs $25 per cubic yard to import or export dirt, this could cost the project over $1 million!

Taking a proactive approach is the best way to stay on top of dirt balance. Here are a few tips:

Take Advantage of Technology

Old school methods like traditional aerial topos, soil borings, and hiring multiple consultants, are inefficient and cost-prohibitive. Additionally, the scans you receive are not easy to use. Luckily for today’s home builders and contractors, there is a better way. Drones are without a doubt the most reliable and affordable method of capturing aerial survey data, enabling project teams to conduct surveys and obtain data as often as weekly (or more!). Even better, powering these scans with a platform like TraceAir allows you to actually use your data, helping you make better decisions, provide your team and stakeholders with better data, and achieve dirt balance.

When it comes to dirt balance, TraceAir enables users to quickly and easily:

• Determine stockpile volumes
• Plan and track cut/fill balance
• Track dirt quantities
• Collaborate using markups and drawings
• Easily shareable 360 panoramic views

Create a Plan

Now that you are equipped with data, put that data to work! Any project that requires excavation should have a dirt balance plan. More complicated projects with massive amounts of remedial grading require a different approach. Basic cut/fill to design calculations do not account for over-excavation, removals, and keyways. Your dirt balance plan should include:

• Volumes to date (raw and remedial)
• Historical bulk/shrink to date
• Volumes remaining (raw and remedial)
• Balance prediction

TraceAir can help you calculate this data and stay on top of dirt balance.

Conduct Regular Dirt Balance Checks

As the project progresses, site balance is even more difficult to track due to several factors:

• Remedial quantities are difficult and labor-intensive to calculate
• Bulk/shrink changes over time and is almost never what you have expected
• Design changes

By tracking site balance weekly, teams can identify problems early and correct them before they become expensive. Accurate cut/fill calculations make it possible to balance even the largest grading projects.

Get Started

Almost all of the top home builders are already taking advantage of this technology and seeing major returns on their investment. Request a demo to learn more about our proprietary software that includes easy cut/fill calculation tools or customized site balance reports.