Topsoil Stripping

Often, at the beginning of an earthworks project, the first operation will be to strip the site of topsoil. Topsoil will typically contain a far higher level of organic material, usually including a sod/turf layer; in an industrial context, it will contain a higher level of contamination (nails, glass, oil etc.). It is removed separately for reasons of material reuse and soil stability.

A topsoil strip entails excavating an area by a set depth. For instance, you may strip the entire site by 20cm. This is fairly easy to complete in Kubla Cubed with the ‘Reduce Element’.

The two most important most important things to remember are to have:

  1. Stripping calculation completed in its own distinct phase.

  2. Earthwork operations that are to be completed after the strip, defined in subsequent phases.

There can be earthwork challenges, including a requirement to reduce different areas by different amounts and to exclude internal areas form a strip (e.g. there is an existing building or tree on the site which is to be preserved). Within this chapter, we will look how Kubla Cubed can model both of these scenarios.