The Short Answer
- One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet: a cube 3 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep.
- A typical dump truck hauls somewhere around 10 to 16 cubic yards per load, depending on the truck.
- Large site work jobs run into the millions of yards. Brown Bros. moved 1.4 million cubic yards for Gestamp and 1.2 million for Volkswagen.
What is a cubic yard of dirt?
A cubic yard is a volume measurement: 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, or 27 cubic feet. It is the standard unit for excavation, grading, fill, topsoil and gravel in the United States, and it is how most earthwork is estimated, bid and paid for.
Weight varies a lot with the material and how wet it is. Loose, dry topsoil is much lighter per yard than wet clay or broken rock, which is why haul plans are built on both volume and truck weight limits.
How many cubic yards fit in a dump truck?
It depends on the truck. Smaller single-axle trucks carry a few yards, standard tandem and tri-axle dump trucks commonly haul somewhere in the range of 10 to 16 cubic yards, and off-road articulated trucks and scrapers on large sites move far more per trip.
On mass grading jobs, most dirt never leaves the property. Scrapers, dozers and articulated trucks cut it from high ground and place it in low ground on the same site, which is far cheaper than hauling it off on the road.
Why does dirt measure differently in the ground and in the truck?
Dirt changes volume as it is handled. Soil dug out of the ground loosens up and takes more room in a truck than it did in place, which the industry calls swell. When it is placed and compacted as fill, it packs tighter again, which is called shrink.
That is why estimates distinguish between bank (in-place), loose and compacted yards. A site that looks balanced on paper can come up short or long on dirt once swell and shrink are accounted for, and a good earthwork estimate plans for it.
What does a million cubic yards look like?
A million cubic yards is a lot of ground. As rough math, if every yard went into a 14-yard dump truck, that would be more than 70,000 truckloads. On real jobs much of it moves on-site with scrapers and off-road trucks instead.
Brown Bros. projects at that scale include Gestamp (1.4 million cubic yards moved), Volkswagen (1.2 million), Hillock Farms (1.2 million), Chestnut Valley (about 1.2 million on a 220-acre, 640+ lot development) and Integra Vista (about 1.3 million at completion). River North added 320,000 cubic yards of mass grading alongside 13,200 feet of sewer main.
How do contractors calculate earthwork volume?
Modern earthwork takeoffs compare two 3D surfaces: the existing ground from a survey or drone flight, and the finished grade from the civil plans. Software calculates the cut (dirt to remove) and fill (dirt to add) between them, area by area.
Brown Bros. uses GPS-guided equipment and 3D site models, so the same model that produces the estimate also guides the machines in the field. That keeps the quantities moved close to the quantities planned.