An embankment can be a slope or a defensive structure, a fill or a dirt road.
Embankment is the earth that is used to build a road or a defensive structure , or that is used for the purpose of filling in a space . The notion is also used with reference to a gap .
For example: "The neighbors demanded that the authorities increase the police presence on the railway embankment since, in recent weeks, it was the scene of numerous robberies" , "Next month we will begin to raise the highway embankment that will link the “San Mateo neighborhood with the city center,” “I ask the community to understand that the embankment is not a garbage dump.”
The term came to our language from French, from the combination of the words terre ( "land" ) and plein ( "full" ). However, that Gallic word was taken from a 16th century Italian verb: terrapienare , which can be translated as “fill with earth.”
Utility of an embankment
The usual thing is that the embankment is developed to raise the level of a piece of land and thus have a support plane that allows the promotion of a construction.
Generally, an embankment is made up of the foundation (the lower sector, which is located next to the surface on which it rests), the shoulder (the lateral or outer sectors), the core (the fill itself) and the crown ( the upper sector). To create the embankment, the use of different machinery is required.
When constructing an embankment, several issues must be considered.
Its development
In order to carry out the construction of an embankment, it is necessary to have one or more people who are in charge of managing and controlling fundamental aspects of this process, such as the following:
- The materials used must not have roots or any other type of organic element.
- When carrying out this process, it is essential that you first check and certify that the surface offers the necessary stability. It must also be free of weeds and elements that impede the process.
- Following the guidelines given by experts in the field, scarification and drainage tasks must also be carried out in the area where work is going to be carried out.
- It is essential to know the nature of the land where the embankment is going to be built in order to take into account what problems, difficulties or setbacks may exist.
- To shape this element it will be done using layers. In this sense, before placing a new layer of material, it must be certified that the previous one is stable and uniform.
Embankment in archeology
In the field of archaeology , one of the types of earthworks carried out by ancient people is called an embankment.
The notion of earthworks, for its part, refers to the modification of the earth's surface for some purpose.