QUESTION ONE (COMPULSORY) (20 Marks).
a). A road has a formation breadth of 12 m, and side slopes of 1 in 1 cut, and 1 in 3 in
fill. The original ground had a cross fall of 1 in 5. If the depth of excavation of the centre
lines of two sections 20 metres apart were provided as 0.6 and 0.8 metres respectively,
compute the volumes of the cut and fill over this length (6 Marks).
a) What is tacheometry? Explain the principle behind tacheometry (10 Marks).
b) Differentiate between Backsight and Foresight as used in levelling (4 Marks).
ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS FROM THIS SECTION
QUESTION TWO (20 Marks)
a). A cutting is to be made in the ground which had a traverse slope of 1:5. The width
of formation was 9.00 m and the side slopes are 1 vertical to 2 horizontal. If the
depths of the centre lines of three sections of 25 metres apart were 3.10, 5.10 and
6.30 m respectively, compute the volume of the earth involved in this length of
cutting (14 Marks).
b). Discuss the following methods of determining areas of irregular figures
i). Simpson’s rule
ii). Trapezoidal rule (6 Marks).
QUESTION THREE (20 Marks)
a). In order to find the excavation required for a railway cutting, cross - sections were
taken at every 40 m. As the ground surface was very irregular, the cross – sections
were plotted and their areas obtained by a planimeter. The results were tabulated
as below:
Page 1 of 4
Chainage (m): 1840 1880 1920 1960 2000 2040 2080 2120 2160 2200 2240
Area (m2): 34 206 248 101 197 296 362 311 89 143 49
Determine the following:
i). Volume of excavation in m3 using both the end areas formula and Prismoid
formula (4 Marks).
ii). Explain which of the above methods is more accurate (2 Marks).
b). The below figure 1, shows the existing ground levels on a 15 m square forming
part of a site which is to be excavated to a uniform level of 10 m above the
datum. Determine the volume of earth to be excavated by assuming that the area
is subdivided in to rectangular and triangular shapes (14 Marks).
Figure 1: Existing ground levels
QUESTION FOUR (20 Marks)
a). Giving appropriate formulae, state ANY four major corrections that are applied to
a steel band when taking linear measurements. A steel band of 30 m which has
Page 2 of 4
been standardized in a catenary at a tension of 55.2 N and at a temperature of 20 0
C was used to measure a 40 m bay of a baseline. The following data was recorded:
- Measured length = 33 m
- Applied tension = 88 N
- The radius of Earth’s curvature = 6370 Km
- The differences in height between the two points = 0.62 m
- The altitude of the base = 2000 m above sea level
- Cross sectional area of the tape = 6.25 mm2
- Young Modulus of Elasticity (E) = 2.1*1011 N/mm2
- Coefficient of Linear Expansion (α) = 12 *10-6/0C
- Mass of the tape = 0.066 Kg/m
Determine the correct length of the bay reduced to mean sea level (10 Marks).
b) In a tape and offset survey, the following offsets were taken to a fence from a survey
line.
Determine the area between the fence and the survey line (8 Marks).
QUESTION FIVE (20 Marks)
a). Determine the area in hectares enclosed by the line of a closed traverse survey
ABCDE. The coordinates (N, E) were A (300,200), B (385.65, 306.98), C (192.02,
368.55), D (158.80, 392.93), E (185.70,291.74), returning back to A (10 Marks).
b). The field notes shown below in the following table were taken during a levelling
to establish the gradient of a bed rock in three boreholes A, B and C. Fill in the
table and carryout arithmetic check (10 Marks).
Page 3 of 4
Page 4 of 4
