proposed route crosses existing roads or railways. To avoid having to reset
models, the siting of these additional cross sections should be agreed by
inspection of the air photographs before work commences.
When cross sections are observed directly, it is again necessary to
adopt the profiloscope technique. Using the result of the latest scheme stage
horizontal alignment calculation, a plot is prepared of the reference line,
stations and normals along which the profiloscope will be guided. It is still
common to find observations recorded by hand, this being probably no more
expensive than automatic recording of XYZ coordinates followed by computer
conversion into measures of offset and level. But, as noted before, manual
recording and manual data punching are operations from which it is difficult
to exclude human error.
As to the style in which cross section data must be presented, this
is dependent on the design system that has been chosen. There are two basic
styles - one in which levels are taken at standard offsets from the reference
line (the offsets need not be recorded since they are written into the program)
and the other which permits levels to be taken at change-of-slope points (here
the offsets, being irregular, must be recorded). At least one design system
admits a combination of both styles and this has proved rather troublesome
because photogrammetrists are prone to forget to insert the special character
which denotes a change of style. This omission is far from obvious when
examining the data, and has the unfortunate effect of causing the computer to
confuse offsets with levels.
Circumstances permitting, mapping and cross sectioning (or DTM
heighting) will proceed simultaneously, the guide sheets for the profiloscope
serving also as mapping sheets. But it should not be thought that because of
this onlyone field party will be needed to check both. The engineer will be
anxious to receive the first few miles of cross sections so that earthwork
calculations may begin, and therefore it must be expected that two parties will
be required: an advance party, to complete obscured parts of the priority cross
sections, followed towards the end of the mapping by the main party.
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