Excavation: Mass, Basin and Structural Cuts, Built to the Report
Mass cuts that balance the site, basins and channels for the drainage, and structural excavation for what gets built. IRONWILL Earthworks self-performs all three across Texas and Oklahoma, planned from the project's geotechnical report and its borings.
What we excavate, and how
Excavation is getting the ground to where the plans say it has to be. The plans tell us where it has to end up. The geotechnical report and its boring logs tell us what is in the way: clay, rock, water, or material that cannot go back in the ground. Between them they decide how a cut is dug, how it is measured and where every yard of it goes, and we read both before we bid.
On most private work the report is the governing document; the building code makes compacted fill under a foundation answer to it3. On public work, TxDOT specifications govern, and they treat excavation and excavation for structures as separate items1. We build to whichever the job names.
| Kind | What it is for | How it is measured and finished |
|---|---|---|
| Mass excavation | Bank cut to fill until the site balances, bringing the footprint to rough grade | Cubic yards, from the existing contours to the proposed contours; fill placed in tested lifts |
| Basin and channel excavation | Detention basins, swales and channels cut to the drainage plan | To the plan's lines and grades, kept draining while it is built |
| Structural excavation | Footings, walls, pits and other structures, then backfilled | To the bottom of the structure, backfilled in compacted lifts to the specification |
Rock: Austin chalk, hard rock and limestone
We know rock, and we know how to get through it. The Austin chalk is not only a south Texas problem: the Dallas, Austin and San Antonio corridors all sit on its outcrop6, and around Austin and San Antonio the ground gets into hard rock and limestone as well. Rock changes the numbers in an earthwork bid. It is ripped or broken rather than dug, and it takes different equipment and more time per yard, so we want to know where it is before the bid. The borings and the report tell us where it starts, and the takeoff carries it as its own line instead of leaving it to a change order.
What comes out of the ground
A soil can carry one name and behave differently five miles down the road, so the cut is planned from the borings, not from a map. Clay the report allows to be reused goes back as fill in lifts, each one tested before the next goes on. Material that cannot be reused, organics, wet clay that will not dry in the window, anything the environmental report flagged, is hauled off lawfully.
Before the first bucket
Two things are in place before any cut opens. The utilities are located: federal rules require the location of underground installations to be determined, and the owners asked to mark them, before excavation starts2. And on any site disturbing an acre or more, the stormwater plan is developed and implemented before construction begins4, so the perimeter controls go in first.
Protecting the cut
A cut is watched every day it is open. A competent person inspects the excavation, the ground beside it and any protective system daily, before work starts and after rain2, and no one works in a cut where water is accumulating until it is controlled2. Where a cut runs beside a building, a wall or a road that cannot move, the support is designed and installed by specialist shoring partners, and we do the excavation around it.
Finishing the cut
A cut is finished to the plan's grades. Under a pavement or a pad the finished surface is scarified and compacted, proof rolled to find soft areas1, and tested for density and moisture against its laboratory compaction curve5: ASTM methods on most private work, TxDOT methods on public work. The next trade gets the surface with the survey and the test reports.
Excavation is one step in site preparation, the whole sequence we self-perform from clearing to a tested pad.
What we do on an excavation
- Read the report first. The geotechnical report, the borings and the plans, so the takeoff knows whether the cut is clay, rock or both before the bid3.
- Measure the real ground. Drone surveys with our partners map the existing elevations, and the data goes straight into our AGTEK takeoffs.
- Open it right. Utilities located and the stormwater controls in before the first cut24.
- Protect the cut. A competent person's inspection daily and after rain; specialist partners for support beside structures2.
- Move the material right. Reusable cut placed as tested fill; the rest hauled off lawfully.
- Finish and prove it. Scarified, compacted, proof rolled and density tested, then handed over with the survey and the reports15.
The order we work in
- Read the report, the borings and the plans, and build the takeoff on them3
- Locate the utilities and put the stormwater controls in24
- Strip the organic soil and stockpile it apart from structural fill
- Mass cut to rough grade until the site balances; rip where the borings put rock
- Dig basins, channels and structural excavations to their own lines
- Place reusable cut as fill in tested lifts; haul the rest
- Scarify, compact, proof roll and test the finished subgrade15
- Hand over the survey and the test reports
What we bring to a cut
- Fluency in the documents that govern the work: geotechnical reports, TxDOT and heavy highway specifications, and ASTM test methods315
- Working relationships with the major geotechnical firms in Dallas-Fort Worth
- Experience in clay, Austin chalk, hard rock and limestone
- A competent person on every excavation, inspecting daily and after rain2
- One self-performing contractor from the first cut to the tested subgrade, with specialist partners where a cut needs major support
Where we work
Texas and Oklahoma, from our base in Dallas. The ground changes from one site to the next, and reading it is the job.
Excavation questions
What owners and general contractors ask before a cut opens.
What is the difference between mass excavation and structural excavation?
Do you excavate rock?
Can the excavated clay be reused as fill?
Do you build to TxDOT specifications?
What happens when the cut fills with water?
Can you dig next to an existing building?
Where do you work?
Sources
Every number and every rule on this page is cited here. Reviewed October 1, 2026.
- Standard Specifications for Construction and Maintenance of Highways, Streets, and Bridges, adopted September 1, 2024Texas Department of Transportation, 2024The specification governing public work: Excavation and Excavation and Backfill for Structures as separate items, and Proof Rolling.
- 29 CFR 1926.651, Specific Excavation RequirementsOccupational Safety and Health AdministrationLocating underground installations before an excavation is opened (b), precautions against accumulating water (h), and daily inspection by a competent person (k).
- 2021 International Building Code, Chapter 18: Soils and Foundations (as adopted in Texas)International Code Council, via UpCodes, 2021Section 1803 (the geotechnical investigation and its report) and 1804.6 (compacted fill under shallow foundations complies with the approved geotechnical report).
- Stormwater General Permit for Construction Activities (TPDES General Permit TXR150000)Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, 2023Coverage for construction disturbing one or more acres, and the SWP3 developed and implemented before construction begins.
- ASTM D698-12(2021), Standard Test Methods for Laboratory Compaction Characteristics of Soil Using Standard EffortASTM International, 2021The laboratory compaction curve that field density and moisture are tested against.
- Facies and Diagenesis of the Austin Chalk and Controls on Fracture Intensity: A Case Study from North-Central Texas (Geological Circular 98-2)Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (S. D. Hovorka), 1998The urban corridors of the Dallas, Austin and San Antonio metropolitan areas lie on Austin Chalk outcrop.
Have a cut to open?
Send the plans, the geotechnical report and the address. We will tell you what is in the ground, whether the site balances, and what the excavation and the schedule look like.