Engr.
George Prejula Palada
Instructor, CE 7
In Civil Engineering works such as designing of long
bridges, dams, reservoirs, etc., the area of catchment of
rivers is required.
In many Civil Engineering projects, earthwork involves
excavation and removal and dumping of earth, therefore
it is required to make good estimates of volumes of
earthworks.
Computing areas and volumes is an important part of the
officework involved in surveying.
Persons engaged in surveying are often called on to
determine volumes of various types of materials.
Quantities of earthwork and concrete are needed, for
example, on many types of construction projects.
Volume computations are also required to determine the
capacities of bins, tanks, reservoirs, and buildings.
The determination of quantities of water discharged by
streams and rivers, per unit of time, is also important.
To most engineering projects, such as route alignment,
reservoir, tunnels, and the likes, estimation of areas and
volumes is the most significant and costly aspect of the
work, on which profit or loss may depend.
Incorrectly calculating volumes of earthwork to be
obtained from a borrow fill, may incur losses to the
project funds.
Embankments are delivered by trucks (truckloads) and
miscalculations may lead to additional truckloads, thus
adding expenses to the project.
Some construction quantities can be separated into
geometric figures, which can then be analyzed into
geometric and trigonometric formulas.
Finding the areas of cross sections is the first step in
obtaining the volume of earthwork to be handled in route
alignment projects, whether road or railway, or
reservoir construction, for example.
How will you calculate a figure like the one shown
below?
Trapezoidal Rule:
The area of the irregular lot shown on the previous slide
can be calculated using trapezoidal rule.
ℎ1 + ℎ𝑛
𝐴=𝑑 + ℎ2 + ℎ3 + ⋯ + ℎ𝑛−1
2
Simpson’s One-third Rule:
Another way to solve the area of the irregular lot is to
make use of Simpson’s one-third rule:
𝑑
𝐴= ℎ1 + ℎ𝑛 + 4 Σℎ𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 + 2 Σℎ𝑜𝑑𝑑
3
Cross sections
A cross section is a short profile taken perpendicular to
the centerline of a roadway or other facility.
The cross section at a station along a road will typically
show:
1. the profile of the original ground surface
2. the base of the road surface
3. the side slopes of the cut or fill
Cross section in CUT:
Cross section in FILL:
Cross sections
The base is the horizontal line to which the cut or fill is
first constructed; its width depends primarily on the
number of lanes and the width of the roadway shoulders.
Side slopes are expressed as the ratio of the
HORIZONTAL distance to a corresponding unit of
VERTICAL distance for the cut or fill slope. This is
opposite to the gradient (rise over run)
Side Slopes
The ratio of the side slopes is dependent largely on the
type of soil and on the natural angle of repose at which it
remains stable.
Angle of repose: the steepest angle of descent relative to
the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled
without slumping.
Side Slopes
A side slope of 1H:1V is possible for some compacted
embankment sections, whereas a flatter ratio of 2:1 or
more is typical for a side slope in a cut section.
Types of Cross – Sections
1. Level Sections
2. Three Level Section
3. Five Level Sections
4. Irregular Sections
5. Transition Sections
6. Side Hill Section Cut and Fill
Calculation of Areas of Cross – Sections:
The following notes describe the ground at a section in
FILL.
F11.8/-42.5 F14.3/-32.0 F15.8/0 F16.3/65.4
The base of the roadway is 50 ft wide. Do the following:
A. Sketch the section
B. Label the points with coordinates
Sketch for Situation 1
From the notes shown below, the base of the roadway is
36 ft. Sketch the cross section then calculate:
A. The area of the cross – section at Sta 88 + 00.
B. The area of the cross – section at Sta 89 + 00.
From the notes shown below, the base of the roadway is
24 ft. Sketch the cross section then calculate:
A. The area of the cross – section at Sta 88 + 00.
B. The area of the cross – section at Sta 89 + 00.
For the given cross-section between sta 20 + 200 and sta
20 + 220, both have the same slope and width of base.
Sta 20 + 200
x/y: 6.60/+2.40 0/+2.00 4.80/+1.20
Sta 20 + 220
x/y: 6.30/+2.20 0/“y” 7.2/2.80
A. Compute the width of the base.
B. Compute the value of cut (y) at 20 + 220 if it has an
area of 16.82 sq. m.
For the section notes of the two stations below, both
have the same side slopes and base width.
Sta 10 + 100 → x/y: 6.45/+2.30 0/+1.50 4.50/+1.00
Sta 10 + 200 → x/y: 6.00/+2.00 0/y 6.90/+2.60
A. Calculate the base width.
B. Calculate the side slopes.
C. Calculate y, if the area at 10 + 200 is 14.64 sq. m.
Calculate the area of each of the cross section of
the proposed road with the section notes below:
1 + 040 F1.84/y1 F1.22/0 F0.42/y2
1 + 100 C0.98/y3 C3.05/0 C0.50/y4
Base for cut = 9 m Sideslope for cut = 1H:1V
Base for fill = 8 m Sideslope for fill = 1.5H:1V
The following data are the cross section notes at
sta 0 + 020 and sta 0 + 040. The natural ground
slope is almost even. Calculate the area of the
section of both stations.
Sta 0 + 020 : Cy1/x1 C3.0/4.5 C1.5/0 0/0
Sta 0 + 040 : Fy2/x2 F2.0/4.0 F1.0/0 0/0
For Cut: base width = 9 m side slopes = 1H:1V
For Fill: base width = 8 m side slopes = 1.5H:1V
1. Prismoidal Formula:
ℒ
𝑉𝑝 = 𝐴1 + 4𝐴𝑚 + 𝐴2
6
2. End Area Formula:
ℒ
𝑉 = 𝐴1 + 𝐴2
2
3. Volume with prismoidal correction:
ℒ
𝑉𝑐𝑝 = 𝑐1 − 𝑐2 𝑑1 − 𝑑2
12
