Cut (earthworks)

In civil engineering, a cut or cutting is where soil or rock from a relative rise is removed.

Cuts are typically used in road, rail, and canal construction to reduce a route's length and grade. Cut and fill construction uses the spoils from cuts to fill in defiles to create straight routes at steady grades cost-effectively.

Cuts are used as alternatives to indirect routes, embankments, or viaducts. They also have the advantage of comparatively lower noise pollution than elevated or at-grade solutions.

In river and smaller watercourse management, both terms are used likewise, the short-cutting of one or more meanders, to speed its flow. Greater and recent examples are often formally suffixed Navigation (more flow-controlled) or a new name of river, whether a navigation, such as the Jubilee River which is a navigation only in part and only for canoes and kayaks. Finally, in the context of lowlands, a proper noun Drain, fresh water Sewer, dyke or otherwise called cutoff (especially in the Mississippi River Delta) often equally acts as land drainage for a very low gradient, tidal estuary or for a flood-prone formerly extensive marshland.