Road Plan and Profile

[rangeroad102]

Hello,

The profile of a gravel road plan shows "10 m Left SOD" and "10 m Right SOD" lines and corresponding elevations. What does that mean? Thank you for your help.

 

[fel3]

Even after 43 years as a civil engineer, I have never seen SOD used in this context. I googled SOD acronym and got lots of hits. Almost all of the reported definitions make no sense here (which should be obvious), although some of them are quite humorous in this context. Near the bottom of this page (

https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SOD)

is one that might be correct: "Secure Observation Distance".

Perhaps SOD refers to clear space on either side of the road, with no obstructions that impede visibility. However, this is just speculation. It could be something else entirely.

Along the same lines, perhaps the "S" in "SOD" stands for "Setback". However, in this case I have no idea what the "O" and "D" stand for.

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"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[rangeroad102]

Thank you for the response, fel3. It means 10m offset from the centre of the road to the sod line, i.e, grass line.

 

[fel3]

That's a reasonable explanation. I had thought about "sod" the word, but it didn't make sense to me in this context because that's not how it would be called out around here, so I looked for acronyms. I was close, but not close enough.

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"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill