This handy book presents more than 2000 needed formulas
for civil engineers to help them in the design office, in the
field, and on a variety of construction jobs, anywhere in the
world. These formulas are also useful to design drafters,
structural engineers, bridge engineers, foundation builders,
field engineers, professional-engineer license examination
candidates, concrete specialists, timber-structure builders,
and students in a variety of civil engineering pursuits.

The book presents formulas needed in 12 different spe-
cialized branches of civil engineering—beams and girders,

columns, piles and piling, concrete structures, timber engi-
neering, surveying, soils and earthwork, building struc-
tures, bridges, suspension cables, highways and roads, and

hydraulics and open-channel flow. Key formulas are pre-
sented for each of these topics. Each formula is explained

so the engineer, drafter, or designer knows how, where, and
when to use the formula in professional work. Formula
units are given in both the United States Customary System
(USCS) and System International (SI). Hence, the text is
usable throughout the world. To assist the civil engineer

using this material in worldwide engineering practice, a com-
prehensive tabulation of conversion factors is presented in

Chapter 1.
In assembling this collection of formulas, the author
was guided by experts who recommended the areas of
greatest need for a handy book of practical and applied civil
engineering formulas.

Sources for the formulas presented here include the var-
ious regulatory and industry groups in the field of civil engi-
neering, authors of recognized books on important topics in

the field, drafters, researchers in the field of civil engineer-
ing, and a number of design engineers who work daily in

the field of civil engineering. These sources are cited in the
Acknowledgments.
When using any of the formulas in this book that
may come from an industry or regulatory code, the user
is cautioned to consult the latest version of the code.
Formulas may be changed from one edition of a code to
the next. In a work of this magnitude it is difficult to

include the latest formulas from the numerous constant-
ly changing codes. Hence, the formulas given here are

those current at the time of publication of this book.
In a work this large it is possible that errors may occur.
Hence, the author will be grateful to any user of the book
who detects an error and calls it to the author’s attention.
Just write the author in care of the publisher. The error will
be corrected in the next printing.
In addition, if a user believes that one or more important
formulas have been left out, the author will be happy to
consider them for inclusion in the next edition of the book.
Again, just write him in care of the publisher.