Table 5-1.-Classification of Pits and Quarries
Type
Material
Primary Use
Operating Equipment
PIT:
Select soil other than sand
and gravel.
Fill for embankments and
subgrades.
Scraper, dozer, rooter,
power shovel, front
loader, or dragline and
dump trucks.
Borrow:
Sand or gravel:
(Bank or Hill)
Sand and gravel with
clay.
Base course, subbases,
and fills.
Scrapers or power shovel,
front loader, or hand tools
and dump trucks.
Power shovel, front
loader, dragline, or
clamshell and dump
trucks.
Power shovel, front
loader, or hand tools and
dump trucks.
(Alluvial)
Clean sand and gravel.
Aggregates for concrete
and bituminous mixes and
free-draining, nonfrost
susceptible fills.
Miscellaneous:
(Dumps)
Slag, mine tailings,
cinders, etc.
Surfacing, tills, and
aggregates.
QUARRY:
Hard rock
Hard, tough rocks like
granite, felsite, gabbro,
diorite, basalt, quartzite,
and some sandstones,
limestones, and
dolomites.
Aggregates for base
courses, surfacing,
concrete and bituminous
mixes, free-draining tills
and stone for riprap,
embankments, and marine
structures.
Rock drill, blasting
materials and machine,
power shovel, front
loader, dump trucks, and
crushing, screening (and
washing) plant.
Rock drill, blasting
materials and machine,
power shovel, front
loader, dump trucks, and
crushing, screening (and
washing) plant.
Rooter, power shovel,
front loader, and earth
moving equipment.
Medium rock:
Moderately hard, tough
rocks like most
sandstones, limestones,
solomites, and marbles.
Base courses and
surfacing on roads and
airfields and aggregates
for some concrete and
bituminous mixes.
Soft rock:
Cementaceous materials
Fills and base courses
and surfacing for roads
and airfields.
like limerock, coral,
caliche, tuff, and laterite
or weak rocks like
disintegrated granite and
some sandstones or
conglomerates.
5-2
