Wall or bank to carry a road or rail over low ground or water's edge
An embankment is a raised wall, bank or mound made of earth or stones, that are used to hold back water or carry a roadway. A road, railway line, or canal is normally raised onto an embankment made of compacted soil (typically clay or rock-based) to avoid a change in level required by the terrain, the alternatives being either to have an unacceptable change in level or detour to follow a contour. A cutting is used for the same purpose where the land is originally higher than required.
Materials
Embankments are often constructed using material obtained from a cutting. Embankments need to be constructed using non-aerated and waterproofed, compacted (or entirely non-porous) material to provide adequate support to the formation and a long-term level surface with stability. An example material for road embankment building is sand-bentonite mixture often used as a protective to protect underground utility cables and pipelines.[1]
^Zakarka, Mindaugas; Skuodis, Šarūnas; Šiupšinskas, Giedrius; Bielskus, Juozas (1 January 2021). "Compressive strength and thermal properties of sand–bentonite mixture". Open Geosciences. 13 (1): 988–998. Bibcode:2021OGeo...13..289Z. doi:10.1515/geo-2020-0289. ISSN 2391-5447.
References
Scott, J. M.; Loveridge, F.; O'Brien, A. S. (2007). Influence of climate and vegetation on railway embankments (PDF) (Report).
Further reading
Bruce, Mary Ellen C.; Berg, Ryan R.; Collin, James G.; Filz, George M.; Terashi, Masaaki; Yang, David S. (October 2013). Federal Highway Administration Design Manual: Deep Mixing for Embankment and Foundation Support (Technical report). Federal Highway Administration. FHWA-HRT-13-046.