Cut & Fill Reference
The balance rules in plain language — where swell and shrink each apply, why neat-volume balance is an illusion, and the rock reversal. Practice tier: the factors come from the swell/shrink chart in ranges, and the grading plan's earthwork summary is the contract document.
The five rules
| # | Rule |
|---|---|
| 1 | Swell bites the haul: trucks move loose yards, so every bank yard of cut costs (1 + swell) truck yards |
| 2 | Shrink bites the fill: every compacted yard placed consumes more than a bank yard of borrow |
| 3 | A site that balances on neat volumes usually imports: fill shrinkage eats the cut, and topsoil comes out of both sides first |
| 4 | Rock reverses the rule — a rock cut placed as fill GROWS 25–43%; balanced rock grading exports |
| 5 | The mass diagram: the curve climbs through cut and falls through fill; a horizontal balance line pairs equal volumes, and where it ends below zero, that gap is the borrow |
Running a balance
The workflow: measure the cut and fill in bank/neat terms (the section methods), strip topsoil off both sides (the topsoil chart), apply shrink to the fill demand and compare (the conversion chain), then price the delta as import or export with the haul in loose yards (the truck chart). The import-vs-stabilize decision at the end belongs to the fill types chart.
Common questions
Why does a "balanced" site still need imported fill?
Because balance on paper compares bank cut to neat fill — and physics taxes both sides. The fill compacts denser than bank (shrink eats ~10–15% of earth), topsoil gets stripped off the cut and can't go under the pad, and unsuitable pockets export themselves. A site balanced on neat volumes typically runs 10–20% short; experienced graders balance with the shrink applied and a contingency on unsuitables.
What is a mass haul diagram?
The running total of cut minus fill plotted along the alignment: the curve climbs through cut, falls through fill, and any horizontal line pairs equal volumes — the haul happens between where the line enters and exits the curve. Where the curve ends below zero, that ordinate is the borrow. It is how road jobs decide haul directions and where the scrapers beat the trucks.
Does rock change the balance?
It reverses it. Earth shrinks into a fill; blasted rock swells and never comes back — placed rock occupies 25–43% more volume than it did in the mountain. A rock cut that "balances" a fill on neat volumes actually over-delivers by a third: balanced rock grading exports, and mixed-face sites need the rock and earth balanced separately.
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