It depends on the context of the reference...As a noun, a "cross section" is usually a drawing or series of drawings on road plans which detail the geometry and explain the various kinds of materials the owner wishes to incorporate during the construction of a roadway.
As a verb, "cross section" instructs a survey crew to lay down horizontal and vertical control grids to encompass all the disturbed soil area within a roadway, and record the physical geometry in such a way that excavated, deposited, and /or rearranged construction materials may be measured, configurations delineated, and/ or legal deeds, & etc. may be made.
The "cross" in cross section refers to the practise of laying out "sections" along a surveyed centerline at intervals crossing the centerline perpendicularly. Differential levels run over delineated "break-points"along both centerline and cross sections periodically between earthmoving operations provide a basis for calculating changes in surface configurations, hence measurement of materials moved.
Periodic cross sectioning (verb) of construction areas, rights of way, ditches, quarrys, borrow pits, etc. provides a measure of work done, the state of completion, and the basis of payment on many features of heavy construction.
__________________
It seemed like a good idea, at the time!
Civil Engineering
Re: Civil Engineering
