The earthwork calculation plays an important role in roadway and bridge projects. At present, the widely used calculation of earthwork still adopts a 2D method, with the average area of two adjacent sections multiplied by the interval, assuming that the area between two sections changes linearly. However, the 2D method has obvious shortcomings, as it ignores the real situations of terrain change. This paper proposes a new algorithm and treatment based on MATLAB for earthwork calculation. This algorithm is divided into two parts: visualization and “real 3D” earthwork calculation. The visualization is achieved by function of Delaunay triangulation and square prism volume method based on definite integral principle is adopt for “real 3D” earthwork calculation. From results, it can be revealed that this calculation algorithm provides a true form and relative location of ground and design surface and reliability calculation accuracy. Finally, a case study was completed and the effectiveness of the algorithm and the platform MATLAB was verified. What’s more it is widely used, simple in implementation, high inclusive of input data types, and can clearly display results and output various types of files.

CICTP