Cut and Fill Excavation

Cut and Fill Excavation

In construction terms, excavation is the process of removing earth to form a cavity in the ground.

Excavation can be done in a variety of different forms, including Topsoil, Trench, Basement excavations and so on, but one of the more common is Cut and Fill excavation.

The Mick George Group has a wealth of experience which dates back over 40-years in completing all types of excavation works, varying in complexity and scale.

What is Cut and Fill Excavation?

In excavation, cut and fill is the process of constructing a railway, road or canal whereby the amount of material from cuts roughly matches the amount of fill needed to make nearby embankments, elevations or level surfaces, so minimising the amount of construction labour.

When creating an optimal terrain, various sections of the design will require bringing in additional earth, whereas other sections will require earth to be removed. The earth that is removed is referred to as Cut and the additional earth brought in, is referred to as Fill, hence Cut and Fill.

Calculating Cut and Fill

One of the simplest methods is the cross section method which 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 volumes are obtained by adding them all together.