Aggregate Tonnage
Tonnes of gravel, sand, or crushed stone from area and depth.
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The engineering
The densities are loose bulk densities for dry material — gravel 1680, sand 1600, crushed stone 1520 kg/m³ — the figures quarries commonly quote for estimating. Real material varies with moisture (wet sand runs 10–20% heavier), gradation, and compaction: a compacted base can be 15–25% denser than the loose density used here, so a compacted lift needs more delivered tonnage than the in-place volume suggests.
For driveways and pads, order by the short-ton row (US quarries sell by the 2000-lb ton) and round up — a partial second delivery costs more than a small surplus pile. Depth is the loose, as-spread depth before compaction.
Where this math comes from
John McAdam's roads of the 1820s were the first engineered aggregate structures — small broken stone, no binder, compacted by traffic — and 'macadam' still names the method. The estimating science came later: William Fuller and Sanford Thompson published the ideal gradation curve in 1907, showing how particle-size distribution sets density and strength.
Duff Abrams's 1918 water–cement ratio work at the Lewis Institute tied aggregate properties into concrete mix design, and the modern quarry industry — screened, washed, sold by the ton — grew around those two papers.
- 1820John McAdamMacadam road construction — engineered aggregate layers (circa).
- 1907Fuller & ThompsonIdeal aggregate gradation curve published.
- 1918Duff AbramsWater–cement ratio law; aggregate science enters mix design.
See the full timeline of the math behind every calculator →
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