In the third installment of our Building a Freeway series over on the ADOT Blog, we talked about moving dirt…a LOT of dirt!

Crews are working to construct additional lanes on the Loop 303 project in the West Valley and plan to move about 3 million cubic yards of dirt by the time the project is finished. (By the way, a lot of work is planned for the Loop 303. The portion of the project we’re talking about runs from Mountain View Boulevard, south to Peoria Avenue.)

That much dirt translates to roughly 200,000 truck loads – and these are some big trucks (take a look at them in action in the video above).

Other projects may, or may not require this much earthwork. It depends on the road design and the original shape of the terrain.

For more on the Loop 303 excavation, visit the ADOT Blog.