Borrow Fill

mdshunk

A newspaper ad for a local excavating contractor read, "... we can also serve your shale, borrow fill, and topsoil needs."

What, exactly, is "borrow fill"? Do you have to give it back?

rino1494

You don't buy it, you just rent it. Maybe you could get a good deal on a trade in for fill.

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mdshunk

I guess that's an excavator joke that just went over my head?

jmic

Wonder if he'd also take spoils?

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Joe

mdshunk

You guys. .... sheesh. I know what spoils are. Pretty much whatever it is you dig out. I just have never heard the term "borrow fill" before. Is that where they take your fill now for only the trucking fee, and bring some back later from someone else's site when you need it back for only the trucking fee? That's my best guess.

denick

md,

I went to my copy of "Moving The Earth, The Workbook of Excavation" for a definition it says, Borrow Pit: an excavation from which material is taken to a nearby job.

So I guess it meant you are borrowing from here to take to there.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

mdshunk

Thank you.

If you had to look it up, I wonder why an excavator would use such an obscure term in a high-dollar large format newspaper ad?

denick

md,

I think it's one of those terms that has just become accepted over time to mean a specific thing when it was a more general term.

And it may be a regional phrase.

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

jmic

Could be more of a regional term.

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Joe

mdshunk

Here's a reduction of the ad that spawned the question:

BrianHay

Borrow is a common tearm used up here to. It refers to any fill taken from a cut that is not part of what you are building. For example if we are building a road and there is not enough cut on the road and in the ditches (we call that cut common) to bring our fills up to grade. And we dig a dugout in a farmers field to get the rest of our fill. We call that borrow. Makes me laugh to. I don't know were the term came from. We aren't going to bring it back lol

concretemasonry

We call them borrow pits. Common in the midwest.

Very common along freeways built in flat lands. You will be able to spot them off or adjacent to the right-of-way, usually near intersections. Most end up as rectanglar ponds and the larger ones get stocked (publically or privately).

I know a highway contractor that dug a big one near a freeway. After the job was over, he bought the surrounding land for next to nothing. Soon, the state forestry people planted screening trees (some big) all around the pond as a freeway beautification project. The state fish people threw in a lot of their huge, too old fish from the hatcheries. It became the contractors private fishing spot. His friends and some highway engineers were the only people allowed in.

Borrrow fill sure beats rented fill.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

Tscarborough

Common term around here: Borrow pits, borrow fill, and even borrow ditches, though it is usually pronounced "bar' ditch".