Cut (earthmoving)

In civil engineering, a cut or cutting is where soil or rock material from a hill or mountain is cut out to make way for a canal, road or railway line.

In cut and fill construction it keeps the route straight and/or flat, where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions (such as diversion) is prohibitive. Contrary to the general meaning of cutting, a cutting in construction is mechanically excavated or blasted out with carefully placed explosives. The cut may only be on one side of a slope, or directly through the middle or top of a hill. Generally, a cut is open at the top (otherwise it is a tunnel). A cut is (in a sense) the opposite of an embankment.