Civil Engineering..."works of art"??

michaelab

michaelab

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OK, probably not quite what you expected this post to be but it's a question about a Civil Engineering term, if there are any civil engineers around here....

I was helping a friend of mine here who works for a civil engineering company translate a document about road construction (gripping stuff :D ) from Portuguese into English and I just couldn't think what the proper terms might be for several things:

"Obras de arte": Literally translated means "works of art" but in Portuguese it's a civil engineering term meaning all the bridges, laybys, peripheral construction that goes with a road. Is there a word for that in English?

"Passagem superior/inferior": Literaly, superior (or inferior) passage but actually means any crossing (like a bridge) that pases over the road (superior) or any crossing (like an underpass) that passes below or underneath a road (inferior). Are there generic terms for these things in English?

Those were the two main ones. If someone answers then I've got a couple more questions :)

Michael.
 
I'm not an engineer, Michael, merely a humble chemist, but in the patent profession, we also use the term "art" (meaning "area of technology") a lot - for example, the addressee of a patent application is a "person skilled in the art". I began to suspect that it really meant "works of the same type", or "ancillary works" or something along those lines. I had a look and found that someone had asked the same question:

http://www.proz.com/?sp=h&id=611048

I can't think of a specific generic description for the second one, but would describe it simply as "over- or underpass" or "over/underpass".
 
My guess would be:-

Passagem superior - Bridge (when crossing water, railway lines etc), Overpass, Flyover (when crossing other roads generally)

Passagem inferior - Tunnel (long distance), Underpass (short distance).

The above list is by no means exaustive. There will be other words and terms to describe things depending on exactly what function they perform.
 

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