Estimating in Building Construction

76 CHAPTER NINE

EXAMPLE 9-8 CUT AND FILL WITH PAVING

Average End Area

The average end area method of quantifying cut and fill is
often used when dealing with long narrow tracts, such as for
roads. In this method, the site is divided into stations. This
labeling convention comes from plane surveying using 100-
foot measuring tapes. The first numbers are the number of
tapes, and the last numbers are the number of feet on the par-
tial tape. In Figure 9.20, station 0000 is the beginning. Sta-
tion 0075 is 75 feet from the beginning station, and station

FIGURE 9.18.Cross-Section Through Pavement.

FIGURE 9.19.Data for Grid 9. 

FIGURE 9.20.Road Site Plan.

01 75 is 175 feet from the beginning station. The positioning

of station lines is a function of the contour and requires accu-

racy. The closer the station lines, the greater the accuracy.

The first step in determining the volume using the aver-

age end area method is to draw a profile at the station lines.

Next, the cut and fill area for each of the profiles is calculated,

and finally, the cut or fill area of two adjacent profiles is aver-

aged and multiplied by the distance between the two stations

to determine the cut and fill quantity between the stations.

Using Figures 9.17 and 9.18, determine cut for grid 9. In Fig-
ure 9.18, the top of the rough grade is 0.50 foot below the top
of pavement. The cuts are the differences between the existing
elevation and the top of the rough grade, and are shown in
Figure 9.19.

3,313 bcf or 123 bcy

Cut

1.4¿1.4¿1.2¿1.3¿

4

2,500 sf