page_title: Digging
section_title: Borrow pit
hierarchical_section_title: Digging / Digging by humans / Reasons / Borrow pit
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Deutschland, Bayern, Landkreis Fürstenfeldbruck, Stadt Olching, Baggersee in der Nähe des Ampersees
context_page_description: Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil or sand on the surface of the Earth. Digging is actually the combination of two processes, the first being the breaking or cutting of the surface, and the second being the removal and relocation of the material found there. In a simple digging situation, this may be accomplished in a single motion, with the digging implement being used to break the surface and immediately fling the material away from the hole or other structure being dug.
  Many kinds of animals engage in digging, either as part of burrowing behavior or to search for food or water under the surface of the ground.
context_section_description: In construction and civil engineering, a borrow pit, also known as a sand box, is an area where material (usually soil, gravel or sand) has been dug for use at another location. Borrow pits can be found close to many major construction projects. For example, soil might be excavated to fill an embankment for a highway, clay might be excavated for use in brick-making, gravel to be used for making concrete, etc.
  In some cases, the borrow pits may become filled with ground water, forming recreational areas or sustainable wildlife habitats (one such example is the Merton Borrow Pit, near Oxford in central England, excavated to provide materials for the nearby M40 motorway). In other cases, borrow pits may be used for landfill and waste disposal.
  A regional variation of this is termed "barrow pit" in the western United States (especially the Rocky Mountains). The localism—sometimes pronounced "borrer pit"—describes the ditch along a roadway. These ditches were created to provide the fill to level and crown the roadway and subsequently provided drainage for the road.
  An excavation lake (also a flooded gravel pit) is an artificial lake, which usually has its origins in the excavation of gravel or sand for construction materials or in some other kind of surface mining. In many cases, the excavation holes are landscaped according to the land restoration required by law. Because the excavation reached a point below the water table, lakes form naturally. Less frequently excavation lakes are intentionally created, especially as recreation areas.
  In Germany the lakes are almost always used for fishing, since a fishery is created by law with every surface water. At some excavation lakes, beaches are added for swimming or other water sports, in particular boating, water skiing or windsurfing. To support these uses, large parking lots, changing areas, and eating areas are also set up. In some cases, the excavation lake serves as a nature reserve, as in the case of the lakes in the Attenborough Nature Reserve.
caption: Panorama of a "young" excavation lake in the Fürstenfeldbruck district of Germany.
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