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Hill road earthwork, chainage 12-15

Short answer

Using side-hill section formulas with formation width 10 m, side slopes 1:1 in cutting and 2:1 in filling, and given cross slopes, the earthwork is 149.91 m³ in cutting and 232.33 m³ in filling.

Estimate the quantities of earthwork for a portion of a hilly road from following data: Formation width = 10 m. Side slopes in cutting = 1:1 and in banking = 2:1 (H:V), length of chain = 30 m.

Chainage12131415
Depth of cut0.40.2--
Ht. of banking--0.30.5
Transverse slope of ground1:101:121:101:8

Given data and assumptions

  • Formation width B=10B = 10 m; side slope in cutting 1:11:1, in banking 2:12:1. The length of one chain is 30 m, so the sections are 30 m apart (chainage numbers 12, 13, 14, 15 are chain numbers).

Method

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 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.

Sectional areas

ChainageCentre ht. hh (m)Cutting area (m²)Filling area (m²)
12cut 0.404.5000.062
13cut 0.202.4890.338
14fill 0.300.2224.000
15fill 0.500.0716.750

Working for one section:

Take chainage 12: centre cutting depth h=0.40h = 0.40 m, n=10n = 10, B=10.0B = 10.0 m.

  • Ground height above formation at the uphill edge =0.900= 0.900 m, at the downhill edge =−0.100= -0.100 m.
  • Toe of the side slope on the uphill side at x=6.000x = 6.000 m from the centre line (ground above formation by 1.000 m); downhill toe at x=5.250x = 5.250 m (ground below formation by 0.125 m).
  • Area from the co-ordinates of the polygon: cutting =4.500= 4.500 m², filling =0.062= 0.062 m².

Volumes

BetweenDistance (m)Cutting (m³)Filling (m³)
12 – 1330.0104.846.01
13 – 1430.040.6765.07
14 – 1530.04.40161.25
Total90.0149.91232.33

Answer: Earthwork in cutting = 149.91 m³; earthwork in filling = 232.33 m³.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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