Construction Knowledge Series: Where does all the dirt go?

This is by far the most frequently asked question I’ve encountered in my construction career. I regularly field this question as I have had the opportunity to manage the earthwork scopes of many deep, urban excavation projects in the greater Seattle area.

 Assuming the dirt is not contaminated, it typically goes to one of two types of locations. The first and most traditional place is a dump site that has been permitted to accept dirt like an old gravel pit that has been mined out or an area that needs fill for future development. The second location type is an active construction or development site nearby that needs fill dirt.  The traditional dump site always charges a fee to accept the dirt while a construction site that needs dirt will often accept it with no dump fees.  By exporting to another construction site you typically save on trucking and dump fee costs.

 The best-case scenario for an excavation contractor is having multiple projects going on with some projects needing to export dirt and some projects needing to import dirt. When the stars align, it is a beautiful and profitable thing. But before you start thinking that excavation contractors are printing money, you must understand that most, if not all, of this opportunity (savings) is already baked into the price. This is a requirement to provide a competitive bid. Any excavator bidding 100% of the dirt going to a "standard" dumpsite and not banking on finding some free or close-by dumpsites would price themselves out of almost any job.