You can see this point is plotted 6 ft to the left of the center line and at an elevation of 72.5 ft in figure 14-29, view B. Now if the notes are reduced in the office, the general practice is to print the elevations in RED; then the elevation just computed (72.5) will appear in red in the cross-section notes (fig. 14-29, view A). After the road gradients, either preliminary or final, have been designed, plot the design data cross section on the existing ground line section plot at each station to complete the picture of the end-area as it will be in the finished highway.

Obtain the finished grade elevation for each station from the profile. Plot the finished grade point usually located on the center at each cross section. Then draw in the outline of the pavement surface, ditches, and cut or fill slopes as they show on the typical design section. Plotting may be done with triangles, but a faster method is to use templates made of plastic, thin wood, sturdy cardboard, or other suitable material. Prepare templates for a cut section, a fill section, and a sidehill section that may be flipped over to accommodate the direction of hillside slope.

The procedures just described are the most common and pertain to irregular sections. However, if regular sections have been taken in the field after the gradients have been designed, then both the existing and the finished surfaces will be plotted. Field notes for simplified three-level sections on a highway are shown in figure 14-30. On the data side, the profile elevation and the grade elevation at each station are listed. In the columns headed Left and Right on the

Figure 14-30.-Field notes for three-level cross sections.

remarks side, the upper numbers with the appropriate letter symbols (C for cut, F for fill) are the cuts or fills; the lower numbers are the distances out from the center. These values indicate points at which the slope stakes are driven. If a five-level or irregular section is being recorded, the other points must be written between those for the center and for the slope stakes. These field notes given you the coordinates that you can use to plot sections, as shown in figure 14-30. In that figure for purposes of clarity, only the lines at every 1/4-in. interval are shown. The scale, both horizontal and vertical, is 1 in. = 10 ft; therefore, the interval between each pair of lines represents 2.5 ft.

The highway is to be 40 ft wide; therefore, the edge of the pavement for each plotted section will be 8 squares (8 x 2.5 = 20) on either side of the center line. Figure 14-30 shows that, for station 305, the left-hand slope stake is located 29.8 ft from the center line and 8.2 ft above grade. The right-hand slope stake is located 35.3 ft from the center line and 12.3 ft above grade. Note how the locations of these stakes can be plotted after you have selected an appropriate horizontal line for the grade line and how the side slopes can then be drawn.

The ground line at the center line is 9.3 feet above grade. Plot a point here, and then finish the plot of the section by drawing lines from the center-line point to the two slope stake points. Plot a five-level section in exactly the same way, except that you plot in additional ground points between the center line and the slope stakes.