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Hill road earthwork, cutting 4 m / banking 6 m

Short answer

Side-hill section formulas for different formation widths (cut: 4m, slope 2:1; fill: 6m, slope 3:1) and given cross slopes. Volumes by mean area with zero-point proportioning. Earthwork: cutting 428.42 m³, filling 606.34 m³.

Estimate the quantity of earthwork of a hill road when the formation width in cutting is 4 m and side slope is 2:1. The formation width in banking is 6 m and side slope 3:1. The ground and formation level at the centre of road and also the transverse slopes of ground surface are as below:

Chainage (m)050100150200250
RL of GL (m)1150.001150.601151.501150.801151.501152.00
RL of FL (m)1149.201150.001150.801151.601151.501153.20
Cross slope (m)1:101:11:141:1201:10

Given data and assumptions

  • Formation width: cutting 44 m with side slope 2:12:1; banking 66 m with side slope 3:13:1 (H:V). Sections are 50 m apart.
  • Centre height = GL − FL: 0.80, 0.60, 0.70 (cutting), −0.80 (filling), 0.00, −1.20 (filling).
  • The cross slope printed as 1:1 at 50 m is steeper than the 2:1 cut slope (the cut face would never meet the ground), so it is taken as 1:10. At 200 m the cross slope is 0 (level ground) and the centre height is zero.

Method

The ground has a transverse (cross) slope n:1n:1 (H:V), so each section is a side-hill section. With centre height hh (cutting +, filling −) above/below formation level, formation width BB and side slope s:1s:1:

xu=n (B/2+sh)n−s,du=h+xunxd=n (B/2+sh)n+s,dd=h−xdnA=12Bh+12[B2(du+dd)+h (xu+xd−B)]\begin{aligned} x_u &= \frac{n\,(B/2 + s h)}{n - s},\quad d_u = h + \frac{x_u}{n}\\ x_d &= \frac{n\,(B/2 + s h)}{n + s},\quad d_d = h - \frac{x_d}{n}\\ A &= \tfrac12 B h + \tfrac12\left[\tfrac{B}{2}(d_u + d_d) + h\,(x_u + x_d - B)\right] \end{aligned}

Here xu,xdx_u, x_d are the horizontal distances of the up-hill and down-hill toes from the centre line, and du,ddd_u, d_d are the heights of the ground above formation at the toes (formulas for cutting). For a section wholly in filling the roles swap: the down-hill toe is the far one, xd=n(B/2+sh)/(n−s)x_d = n(B/2 + s h)/(n - s) and xu=n(B/2+sh)/(n+s)x_u = n(B/2 + s h)/(n + s), with hh the filling height and ss the filling slope. Where the ground line crosses the formation level inside the road width (part cutting, part filling), the cutting and filling areas are found separately from the co-ordinates of the section (toe points from the same intersection equations). Volume between sections = mean area × distance, taken separately for cutting and filling. Where the centre changes from cutting to filling between two sections and one type of area is zero at one end, the change-over point is found by proportion of the centre heights, and that area is taken over its own part of the length only: V=12A×lV = \tfrac12 A \times l.

Sectional areas

ChainageCentre ht. hh (m)Cutting area (m²)Filling area (m²)
0+000cut 0.804.7500.000
0+050cut 0.603.3330.000
0+100cut 0.703.9000.000
0+150fill 0.800.0007.368
0+2000.000.0000.000
0+250fill 1.200.00012.956

Working for one section:

Take chainage 0+050: centre cutting depth h=0.60h = 0.60 m, n=10n = 10, B=4.0B = 4.0 m.

  • Ground height above formation at the uphill edge =0.800= 0.800 m, at the downhill edge =0.400= 0.400 m.
  • Toe of the side slope on the uphill side at x=4.000x = 4.000 m from the centre line (ground above formation by 1.000 m); downhill toe at x=2.667x = 2.667 m (ground above formation by 0.333 m).
  • Area from the co-ordinates of the polygon: cutting =3.333= 3.333 m², filling =0.000= 0.000 m².

Change-over between 0+100 (wholly in cutting, 0.70 m) and 0+150 (wholly in filling, 0.80 m): the zero point is 50×0.70/1.50=23.3350 \times 0.70/1.50 = 23.33 m from 0+100, leaving 26.6726.67 m in filling.

  • Cutting =12×3.900×23.33=45.50= \tfrac12 \times 3.900 \times 23.33 = 45.50 m³
  • Filling =12×7.368×26.67=98.24= \tfrac12 \times 7.368 \times 26.67 = 98.24 m³

Volumes

BetweenDistance (m)Cutting (m³)Filling (m³)
0+000 – 0+05050.0202.080.00
0+050 – 0+10050.0180.840.00
0+100 – 0+15050.0 (23.33 cut + 26.67 fill)45.5098.24
0+150 – 0+20050.00.00184.20
0+200 – 0+25050.00.00323.90
Total250.0428.42606.34

Answer: Earthwork in cutting = 428.42 m³; earthwork in filling = 606.34 m³.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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