The cost of leveling the dump is small, if dump wagons are used and the earth is dumped over the end of the embankment or wasted; and it may be taken the same as for scrapers, i. e., at 0.40 cents per cubic yard. But dump wagons are so heavy and expensive that they are seldom used; and if ordinary wagons with dump boards are employed, the expense for labor on the dump will be about three times as great as above, or, say, 1.20 cents per cubic yard.
The driver furnishes his own wagon, and hence no account is taken of the wear and tear of it. There should be a small allowance made for the wear and care of shovels, say, 0.1 cent per cubic yard.
The total cost of moving earth 700 to 800 feet with wagons, then, is as follows: For longer distances add 1 cent per cubic yard for each 100 feet of distance—the usual charge for over-haul.
seldom occur in wagon-road construction.
Finishing the Slopes. In addition to the elements of cost discussed above, there is always some expense in leveling off the bottom of the cut, in digging ditches, in trimming up the slopes of embankments and excavations, and in cutting a catch-water at the top of the slope in excavation. The cost of these items will vary greatly with the degree of finish required and also with the depth of the cut or the fill; and it may amount to 0.25 or 0.50 of a cent per cubic yard. If the bottom of the cut can be leveled off with the scraping grader, and if the ditch also can be made with this machine, the cost of this item will be considerably reduced.