National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 16907‑1:2018.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee B/526/-/1, Earthworks.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 December 2018.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 20 May 2018.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 16907‑1:2018) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 396 “Earthworks”, the secretariat of which is held by AFNOR.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2019, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by June 2019.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document is one of the European Standards within the framework series of EN 16907 on Earthworks. The set of standards prepared by CEN/TC 396 is divided into several parts, which correspond to different steps of the planning, execution and control of earthworks and should be considered collectively as a group of standards for executing earthworks. The full set of Parts is as follows:

EN 16907‑1Earthworks - Part 1: Principles and general rules (this document);
EN 16907‑2Earthworks - Part 2: Classification of materials;
EN 16907‑3Earthworks - Part 3: Construction procedures;
EN 16907‑4Earthworks - Part 4: Soil treatment with lime and/or hydraulic binders;
EN 16907‑5Earthworks - Part 5: Quality control;
EN 16907‑6Earthworks - Part 6: Land reclamation earthworks using dredged hydraulic fill;
EN 16907‑7Earthworks - Part 7: Hydraulic placement of extractive waste.

Within this standard, references to specific parts of the standard are written by reference the full reference (e.g. “EN 16907‑2”).

These “Earthworks standards” do not apply to the environmental planning and geotechnical design that determines the required form and properties of the earth-structure that is to be constructed. They apply to the design of the earthworks materials, execution, monitoring and checking of earthworks construction processes to ensure that the completed earth-structure satisfies the geotechnical design.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

1 Scope

This European Standard (Part 1) gives definitions, principles and general rules for the planning, design and specification of earthworks. It introduces the other parts of the standard, which will be used together with Part 1.

Earthworks are a civil engineering process aimed at creating earth-structures by changing the geometry of the earth surface for construction or other activities. Application fields of earthworks are associated with:

transport infrastructures (road and motorways, railways, waterways, airports);
platforms for industrial, commercial and residential buildings;
water engineering, flood defence and coastal protection works;
harbours and airport areas, including the construction of embankments in water;
river dykes and marine embankments for land reclamation;
earth and rock fill dams;
onshore embankments made of hydraulically placed fill;
noise barriers, visual barrier, and other non-load bearing earthworks:
landscaping embankments;
backfilling of open mines and quarries;
tailings dams;

They are characterized by the need to use available natural or recycled materials and to handle them in a way appropriate to yield prescribed properties.

This standard is applicable to all types of earth-structures, except the cases listed below:

some specific types of works such as the execution of trenches and small earthworks may be organized using simplified or specific rules;
some structures, such as dykes and dams, need earthworks which have specific design and construction requirements: these may extend beyond the rules of this standard.

This standard does not cover ground improvement beneath an earth-structure by techniques such as piling, jet grouting, deep soil mixing, vertical drains or stone columns.

Due to the variable subsoil and climate conditions within Europe and to the different national contract conditions, national sets of rules have been established in several European countries which could not be harmonized within a short period by a European Standard. This European Standard gives therefore basic rules to reach the aims described above. Informative Annexes B to H of this document give examples of national practices following these rules.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Definitions

3.2 Abbreviations and symbols

4 Principles of earthworks design and execution

4.1 General

4.2 Stages of earthworks projects

4.3 Instructions for the execution of works

4.4 Relationship between earthworks and earth-structure design

4.5 Sustainable development and environmental considerations for earthworks

4.6 Risk management

4.7 Types of earthwork processes

5 Specific site and material investigations

5.1 Information needed for earthworks design

5.2 Coordination of ground investigations

5.3 Use of classification systems

6 Design of earthworks for fills

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Design procedure

6.3 Selection of the fill material properties and compaction process

6.4 Details of specific parts, materials and earth structures

7 Design of earthworks for cuttings

7.1 General

7.2 Materials involved

7.3 Geometry

7.4 Drainage

7.5 Overall stability

7.6 Relevant properties of the cutting base (subgrade)

8 Design of earthworks formed by dredging and hydraulic placement of fills

9 Design of earthworks for hydraulic placement of wastes

10 Earthworks Drainage

10.1 Drainage for collecting water

10.2 Protection of slopes against erosion

11 Optimization of earthworks project design

12 Technical Specifications for earthworks

12.1 General

12.2 End product Specification

12.3 Method Specification

12.4 Performance Specification

13 Monitoring earthworks and checking earth-structures performance

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Needs and techniques for monitoring and checking earthworks

13.3 Checking earth-structure performance

14 Use of national experience and non-conflicting rules

14.1 General

14.2 Informative examples of experience-based national practices

Bibliography

BS EN 16907-1:2018

Earthworks - Principles and general rules

Current, Under Review

Published:

31 Dec 2018