Traditional technologies and techniques for earth moving are rather simple and well refined. Moving soil still requires one to excavate the soil and transport t

Traditional technologies and techniques for earth moving are rather simple and well refined. Moving soil still requires one to excavate the soil and transport the soil. I can't see any way around that. There are only so many ways to improve on this model. In rural environments it is possible to use larger haul trucks to move the materials. The urban nature of the construction site will limit the size of vehicles that can be used to transport the materials. As for the excavation equipment, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) is obviously the tool of choice. Maybe some efficiencies can be gained with the TBM through some sort of re-usability. The space analogy, in mind, is not a great one. Prior to SpaceX, launches were generally a rare and expensive thing. Musk has changed that by making the process more efficient. Earth work, on the other hand, is done every day. There is likely a large dirt moving operation somewhere near every person that will see this thread. Be it excavation for the foundation of a large building or the construction of a roadway, moving earth is extremely common. [edit] Clarity in the last sentence of the first paragraph.