Earthworks Balance

In order to minimise material waste or borrow, it is necessary to produce what is called a

Mass Haul diagram. This is essentially a plot of cumulative volume of soil against
distance along the road, often called the chainage. Cut volumes are taken to be positive
and fill volumes to be negative.
Calculation of Cross Sectional Area
The first stage in the production of the Mass Haul Diagram is the calculation of the cross
sectional areas of cut or fill at different points along the road.
or a cut or fill on hori!ontal ground.
Figure 1 " Typical Cut Cross #ection
$ssuming a cut such as the one above, the cross sectional area is given by%
$rea & h.'b ( 'nh)*' & h+'b ( nh,
or a cut or fill on sloping ground
Figure 2 " Typical #loping Cut Cross #ection
$ssuming a cut such as the one above, the cross sectional area is found firstly by
calculating -. and -/%
-. & #+b(nh,*+#(n,
-/ & #+b(nh,*+#"n,
Thus $rea & 0+h ( b*n,+-. ( -/, " b)*n
or more complicated cross sections, simply combine the above. It should be noted that
this is 12T part of the design process for the slope stability.
Cumulative Volumes
2nce the cross sectional areas are known at various points along the road, it is possible to
calculate the cumulative volume along the cut by interpolating between the different
points.
The simplest way of doing this is to assume a straight line variation and use the prismatic
rule. 2ther slightly more complicated methods involve using #impsons rule or similar.
Do not forget to take account of the bulking factor or shrinkage factor although care
should be taken not to use them both as this will produce incorrect results. If you are
using the shrinkage factor then changes in volume due to e3cavation is accounted for
automatically. The same is true for the bulking factor.
EARTHWORK FORMULAS

Area
Area by
Coordinates
Area = [X
A
(Y
B
- Y
N
) + X
B
(Y
C
- Y
A
) + X
C
(Y
D
- Y
B
) + ...+ X
N
(Y
A
-
Y
N-1
)]/2

Trapezoidal Rule
Area = w[(h
1
+ h
n
)/2 + h
2
+ h
3
+ h
4
+ .... + h
n-1
]

w = common iner!a" "en#h
Simpsons !"#
Rule
w = common iner!a" "en#h
n m$% &e o'' n$m&er o( mea%$remen%

$olume
A%era&e End Area
Formula
) = *(A
1
+ A
2
)/2
A = %ecion area
* = "en#h &eween area% 1 an' 2
) = !o"$me

'rismoidal
Formula
) = *(A
1
+ 4A
m
+ A
2
)/+
A
m
= area a mi' %ecion
'yramid or Cone
) = h(area o( &a%e)/3
h = cone hei#h
or a more accurate measurement of dike volume on rough ground, you should apply the
following formula, known as #impson4s rule, where% V = (d 3) x [A1 + An + 4(A2 + A4 +
... An-1) + 2(A3 + A5 + ... An-2)]. 5roceed as follows%
+a, Divide the length of the dike into an odd number n of cross"sections at e6ual intervals
of d metres.
+b, Calculate the area A of each cross"section as e3plained earlier.
+c, Introduce these values into the above formula