Cuts are typically used in road, rail, and canal construction to reduce a route's length and grade.
"[2] Cuts can be created by multiple passes of a shovel, grader, scraper or excavator, or by blasting.
[3] One unusual means of creating a cut is to remove the roof of a tunnel through daylighting.
The use of cuttings often provides byproducts as a form of mineral extraction, commonly sand, clay or gravel; the cost of building drains, reinforcing banks against landslide and a high water table are factors which commonly limit its use in certain areas.
The former permits passage of a transportation route alongside of, or around a hill, where the slope is transverse to the roadway or the railway.