Mass Haul Balance, Free Haul, and Overhaul

A mass haul diagram is the cumulative algebraic sum of cut and fill along an alignment, and everything useful about it comes from two properties of that curve. WHERE IT CROSSES THE BASE LINE, CUT EQUALS FILL between the crossings -- those are the balance points, and the earth between them moves within itself. Where the curve rises, material moves forward along the alignment; where it falls, backward. A persistent surplus or deficit shows as a curve that never returns, and that is where importing or exporting beats hauling. THE SHRINKAGE CORRECTION COMES FIRST AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. Cut is measured in place and fill is measured compacted, and the two are different states of the same dirt: most soils lose volume between them, so a cut yields less compacted fill than its in-place measurement, while rock swells and yields more. Accumulating a mass ordinate from uncorrected volumes produces balance points in the wrong places and a haul plan built on them. FREE HAUL AND OVERHAUL ARE A PAYMENT CONVENTION rather than a physical distinction. The free haul distance is the movement included in the excavation price, drawn as a horizontal chord across the curve; the volume above that chord is the material that travels further, and it is paid separately as overhaul in STATION-YARDS -- one cubic yard moved one hundred feet beyond free haul. That unit is why the arithmetic matters: overhaul is a product of volume AND distance, so a modest volume moved a long way can cost more than a large volume moved a short one, and the diagram is what shows which is happening. And the decision the diagram exists to inform is borrow against haul. Bringing material from a pit is itself a haul, so the comparison is between the station-yards of hauling along the job and the station-yards from the pit, plus the cost of the material and of wasting whatever it displaces. On a long alignment with a deficit at one end, borrowing locally routinely beats dragging fill the length of the project. A balance check and an overhaul quantity from figures the reader supplies. IT DOES NOT BUILD THE MASS HAUL DIAGRAM: that takes the cut and fill volume at every station along the alignment, and the balance points, the free haul chord and the overhaul volume are read off the completed curve. The overhaul volume and its average distance are entered here rather than derived for that reason. It does not address haul road condition, grades, or equipment cycle times, which decide the actual cost of moving a yard; the sequencing and phasing of the work; the suitability of cut material for fill, which is a geotechnical question and frequently the real constraint; moisture conditioning; or environmental limits on borrow and waste sites. Shrinkage factors vary by material and by the compaction specified and should come from the geotechnical report rather than from a rule of thumb. The project's earthwork quantities, the geotechnical report, the contract's measurement and payment provisions, and the engineer of record govern.

cut corrected by its shrinkage factor before comparison with compacted fill; balance = corrected cut - fill required; overhaul = the volume beyond free haul x its distance past free haul / 100, in station-yards; the borrow comparison is the same product at the borrow haul distance.

The mass haul conventions by name -- balance points where the mass ordinate crosses the base line, free haul as a horizontal chord of that length, and overhaul priced in STATION-YARDS (one cubic yard moved 100 ft beyond free haul). IT DOES NOT BUILD THE DIAGRAM: the overhaul volume and its average distance are read off a completed curve and entered here. Shrinkage factors vary by material and by the compaction specified and come from the geotechnical report. The project's earthwork quantities, the geotechnical report, the contract's measurement and payment provisions, and the engineer of record govern.

One multiplication and one comparison on quantities the reader takes off a diagram; no earthwork quantities are reproduced.

Estimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.

Field names used by the API: cut_volume_cy, shrinkage_factor, fill_required_cy, free_haul_ft, overhaul_volume_cy, average_overhaul_distance_ft, overhaul_rate_per_station_yard, borrow_haul_ft, compacted_from_cut_cy, balance_cy, cut_needed_for_fill_cy, beyond_free_haul_ft, overhaul_station_yards, overhaul_cost, borrow_station_yards, free_haul_stations

• It does not build the diagram the balance points, free haul chord and overhaul volume are read off a completed curvethe project's earthwork quantities
• Shrinkage factors come from the geotechnical report they vary by material and by the compaction specifiedthe geotechnical report
• No cycle times or suitability haul roads, grades and whether cut material can be used as fill decide the real costthe engineer of record