There is a growing need and interest to improve sustainability and productivity in the construction sector. Energy consumption from machines and transport operations in construction projects account for the largest part of the emissions in the sector. Considering the transport alone transports within construction and civil engineering account for 25-30% of the number of road transports in Sweden  and between 2011 and 2019 accounted for the largest increase of emissions (CO2 equivalents) in absolute terms. According to the Swedish Road Administration, more than 42% of all heavy trucks in Sweden 2021 were overloaded, which is an increase of nearly 20% since 2014. To address these negative trends, new transport concepts and solutions are needed.

The earth-moving process within construction is often iterative. A fleet of vehicles shares the mission to transport earth mass from A to B. This report addresses the system-level perspective on introducing heavier vehicle combinations, High-Capacity Transport (HCT) vehicles, and how this influences the overall productivity and related fuel consumption from the entire process. Challenges with introducing HCT in the construction process include the change in process pace, and related dimensioning for using heterogeneous fleets. Additionally, the introduction of HCT vehicles even further emphasizes the importance of load weight control to avoid overweight, ensure compliance, and maximize vehicle utilization by minimizing underweight.

This report presents a case study of an earthmoving operation in a tunnel construction project where real-world data from a mass load-out process in tunnel construction have been studied. The study has simultaneously collected detailed data from real-world sensors mounted on a loading machine, a heterogenous truck fleet, and an infrastructure-based bridge weight-in-motion (B-WIM) system. The methodology includes data collection of detailed positions, load weight, time, speed, and fuel consumption from different vehicles and vehicle combinations. Results include a statistical model for fuel consumption as a function of gross weight, assessments of impact from HCT-vehicles, and key knowledge regarding transport weighing scales.