HOW TO ESTIMATE CUT AND FILL VOLUMES FOR EARTHWORKS PROJECTS

INTRODUCTION

The example project which will be used in this article. This is a (fictional) platform being added to
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The project includes cut (shaded red) and fill (blue)
On construction projects it is often necessary to modify the existing ground levels to create
platforms to build on. Accurately calculating the volumes of soil that must be removed (cut) or added
(fill) to create the final ground levels is an essential part of the planning process.
In this article we are going to describe how these volumes can be calculated. We will take an
example project, and use three of the most common methods to estimate cut and fill volumes. The
three methods that we will go through are:

The cross-section method

The grid method
Using specialist software

The examples described in this article have been worked through for each of these three
method with an excel spreadsheet which is available here. You may wish to download this spreadsheet
and work through the examples yourself to aid understanding of the methods described. The
spreadsheet also contains a number of formulas which automate certain aspects of these methods
described below, so you may find it useful for implementing these methods on your own project.

CROSS-SECTION METHOD

Sections are drawn at equal intervals through the project. For each section line the cut area and the fill
area is determined. The volume between two sections is determined as the average area of the two
sections multiplied by the distance between them. By adding together the volumes between all of the
sections the total cut and fill volumes are obtained.
The cross section method involves plotting cross sections of the existing and proposed levels
at regular intervals across the project site. For each of the cross sections, the cut area and the fill area
is determined. The volume between each pair of sections is estimated by multiplying the average cut
or fill area of the two sections by the distance between them. Once these volumes have been
calculated for each pair of sections the total cut and fill volumes are obtained by adding them all
together.
An example calculation for the volumes between two sections of the example shown opposite.
This calculation is repeated for all of the sections, and the values are added together to get the total
cut and fill volumes.
There are several different methods used to determine the areas of cut and fill once the
sections have been plotted. Perhaps the simplest (but most time consuming) method is to plot the
sections on gridded paper and count the grid cells of the cut and fill areas. Multiplying the cell count by
the area represented by each of the grid cells gives the cut or fill area for the section. Other methods
include drawing the sections in CAD and exporting areas or calculating areas mathematically using the
trapezoidal rule. The spreadsheet included with this article includes formulae which have automated
the process of calculating section areas using the trapezoidal rule. This can save a great deal of time if
you are using the cross section method.
The accuracy of the cross section method depends to a large degree on the distance you
choose to set between the sections. Closer sections improve the accuracy of the estimate, but take
longer to estimate. A balance has to be made between accuracy on the one hand, and speed of
generating the estimate on the other.
One of the great advantages of this method is that cross sections are generated in the process.
These provide a useful visual summary of the estimation, which present the cut and fill depths across
the project in a very clear way. One of the disadvantages off the method is that it can be extremely
laborious to extract cross sections from the drawing, and to determine the areas of the sections.

To use the cross-section method to calculate your cut and fill construction project, do the
following:
1.

Lay your plan out on a smooth level service, and with a T-square, divide your plan with a
number of equally spaced horizontal lines.
2. On a piece of graph paper, preferably 11 x 17, plot out the existing elevations from the
beginning to the end of each cross-section line. The vertical axis is for elevations and the
horizontal axis is for the distance along the cross-section.
3. Then for each cross-section, plot out the proposed elevations from the beginning to the end of
each cross-section line on the same graph as the existing.
4. For each cross-section, count the number of squares where the existing line is above the
proposed line. This is your cut area for that cross-section.
5. For each cross-section, cout the number of squares where the existing line is below the
proposed line. This is your fill area for that cross-section.
6. For each adjacent pair of cross-sections, average the cut area between the two and multiply it
by the distance between the two cross-sections to calculate your cut volume.
7. For each adjacent pair of cross-sections, average the fill area between the two and multiply by
the distance between the two cross-sections to calculate your fill volume
8. Now add up all of your cut volumes and divide them by 27 to get the total cut volume for your
site in cubic yards.
9. Add up all of your fill volumes and divide them by 27 to get the total fill volume for your site in
cubic yards.
10. To determine the export for your site, subtract the fill volume from the cut volume. If this is a
positive number, then you have more cut than fill so youll need to export material from your
site. If the numbers negative you have more fill than cut, and you will need to import material
onto your building site.

GRID METHOD

The average cut or fill depths are determined for each cell in the grid. From these depths the volumes
of each grid cell can be calculated, and by adding the cell volumes together the total cut and fill
volumes are obtained

The grid method involves drawing a uniform grid onto a plan of the earthworks project, and
taking off the existing and proposed ground levels at each node of the grid. With these values the
average depth of cut or fill required on each cell of the grid is calculated, and the volume for each cell
is obtained by multiplying the depth by the cell area. By adding the volumes for each cell together the
total cut and fill volumes for the project can be estimated.
The cut or fill depth for each cell is found by subtracting the average existing level of the cell
from the average proposed level. If the resultant depth is positive then this is a fill cell, while a
negative value indicates a cut cell. In either case, the volume is calculated by multiplying the cut of fill
depth by the area of the grid cell.

An example calculation of the volume for one of the grid cells in the example on the right
Once the volume has been calculated for each grid cell, all of the cut cells are added together
to obtain the total cut volume. The same is done for the fill cells to get the total fill volume.
As with the cross-section method, the accuracy of the grid method depends upon the size of
grid cell which is used. A compromise has to be made between the accuracy which is required, and the
time which will be taken to produce the estimate.
An advantage of the grid method are that the basis of the estimate can be fully summarised on
the site drawings, which presents a very clear summary of the calculations for others to check. One of
the disadvantages are no graphical summary is generated for the estimation. Also, like the section
method, the grid method is time-consuming and tedious to implement.

To use the grid method to calculate your cut and fill construction projects, do the following steps:
1.
2.
3.

Lay your plan out on the flat surface. Then with a large T-square, draw set of equally spaced
horizontal and vertical lines across your plan.
At each intersection of the horizontal and vertical lines, determine the existing and the
proposed elevation
For each intersection subtract the existing elevation from the proposed elevation. Positive
numbers are fill. Negative numbers are cut.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

For each cell, add the four cut and fill numbers together and divide them by 4.0 to calculate
the average cut or fill depth for that cell.
Multiply the average cut or fill depth by the number of square feet in the grid cell to get the cut
or fill volume in cubic feet.
Add all of the cut volumes up and divide that number by 27 to get the total cut for the site in
cubic yards.
Add all of the fill volumes up and divide that number by 27 to get the total fill for the site in
cubic yards.
To calculate the import or export, subtract the fill volume from the cut volume. If the result is a
positive number, you have more cut than fill and you will need export material from your site.
If the numbers negative, you will need to import dirt onto the building site.

SOFTWARE

A screen shot from Kubla Cubed, which is software for estimating earthworks volumes. As well as
calculating volumes automatically, the cut and fill depths are shaded.
Modern computer software allows earthworks volumes to be calculated quicker and more
accurately than either of the two manual methods described above. There are a number of software
products available for this purpose. These products vary greatly in terms of complexity and price.
The first stage of producing an estimate using software is to import the existing terrain. Once
this is done the proposed terrain is drawn, and the software automatically calculates the cut and fill
volumes required.

Different software products use different methods to generate the estimate. Some will
essentially apply the grid method described above on a fine-resolution grid, whereas others use a
triangulation of the terrain to calculate volumes directly. In any case, the processing power of modern
computers means that a high level of accuracy can be achieved in a fraction of the time it would take
to produce a manual estimate.
There are many advantages to using software to calculate earthworks volumes, and most
companies which estimate earthworks on a regular basis will use software to do so. Perhaps the
principal advantage of software is that it is much quicker to produce a more accurate estimate when
compared with the manual methods described above. Another major advantage is that most modern
software products of this type will have useful display options which can be exported for presentations.
Shading cut and fill depths across the project is a particularly useful facility. Rightly or wrongly, people
tend to be more impressed by computer-generated images than they are by hand calculations, and
trust them more. This is particularly important when presenting your estimates to a client as part of a
tender.
The primary disadvantage of using software to produce estimates is the cost of the software
licence, which varies between around $200 to several $1000s. While this cost should be offset against
the time saved by using the software as well as the improved chance of winning bids with computer
visualisations, it can nevertheless be a cause of concern for a company that does not need to produce
many earthworks estimates.

SUMMARY
There are a number of methods available for estimating cut and fill quantities, three of which
are described here. The best method for a particular organization will depend on a number of factors,
including:

The
The
The
The

number and complexity of the projects which you need to estimate

presentational requirements for the estimation
level of accuracy required
time you have available to produce the estimate

The money you have available to buy software licences