Deane Goltermann Feb 15, 2018:

Right... Bench is used in open pit mining, but I was looking at the context of tunneling for road building...from previous questions Dave has had recently. Context always muddies the waters when not clear. ;-)

Paul Armitage Feb 15, 2018:

bench? I'm in a big hurry to board a flight. Have just seen this and am wondering if bench is the term you need. In an open pit mine, benches are the steps in the stepped walls of the mine. Hope this doesn't muddy the waters. I can follow up tomorrow if you would still like some help (I'm on a long night flight).

SafeTex (asker) Feb 14, 2018:

@all I had just decided to use "ledge" when Deane confirmed this.