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Archer Butler Hulbert
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Title: The Future of Road-making in America
Author: Archer Butler Hulbert
Release Date: September 12, 2010 [EBook #33706]
Language: English
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HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 15
[Illustration: General Roy Stone
(_Father of the good-roads movement in the United States_)]
HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 15
The Future of Road-making in America
A Symposium
BY
ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT
and others
_With Illustrations_
[Illustration]
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
CLEVELAND, OHIO
1905
COPYRIGHT, 1905
BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 11
I. THE FUTURE OF ROAD-MAKING IN AMERICA 15
II. GOVERNMENT COÖPERATION IN OBJECT-LESSON ROAD WORK 67
III. GOOD ROADS FOR FARMERS 81
IV. THE SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR MACADAM ROADS 170
V. STONE ROADS IN NEW JERSEY 190
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. PORTRAIT OF GENERAL ROY STONE
(father of the good-roads movement
in the United States) _Frontispiece_
II. A GOOD-ROADS TRAIN 59
III. SAMPLE STEEL TRACK FOR COMMON ROADS
(showing portrait of Hon. Martin Dodge) 66
IV. TYPICAL MACADAM ROAD NEAR BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA 83
V. A STUDY IN GRADING 89
VI. SAND CLAY ROAD IN RICHLAND COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA 115
VII. GRAVEL ROAD NEAR SOLDIERS' HOME, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 127
VIII. OYSTER-SHELL OBJECT-LESSON ROAD 137
IX. EARTH AND MACADAM ROADS 168
PREFACE
The present volume on the Future of Road-making in America presents
representative opinions, from laymen and specialists, on the subject of
the road question as it stands today.
After the author's sketch of the question as a whole in its sociological
as well as financial aspects, there follows the Hon. Martin Dodge's
paper on "Government Coöperation in Object-lesson Road Work." The third
chapter comprises a reprint of Hon. Maurice O. Eldridge's careful
article, "Good Roads for Farmers," revised by the author for this
volume. Professor Logan Waller Page's paper on "The Selection of
Materials for Macadam Roads" composes chapter four, and E. G. Harrison's
article on "Stone Roads in New Jersey" concludes the book, being
specially valuable because of the advanced position New Jersey has taken
in the matter of road-building.
For illustrations to this volume the author is indebted to the Office of
Public Road Inquiries, Hon. Martin Dodge, Director.
A. B. H.
MARIETTA, OHIO, May 31, 1904.
The Future of Road-making in America
CHAPTER I
THE FUTURE OF ROAD-MAKING IN AMERICA
In introducing the subject of the future of road-making in America, it
may first be observed that there is to be a future in road-building on
this continent. We have today probably the poorest roads of any
civilized nation; although, considering the extent of our roads, which
cover perhaps a million and a half miles, we of course have the best
roads of any nation of similar age. As we have elsewhere shown, the era
of railway building eclipsed the great era of road and canal building in
the third and fourth decades of the old century, and it is interesting
to note that freight rates on American railways today are cheaper than
on any railways in any other country of the world. To move a ton of
freight in England one hundred miles today, you pay two dollars and
thirty cents; in Germany, two dollars; in France, one dollar and
seventy-five cents; in "poor downtrodden" Russia, one dollar and thirty
cents. But in America it costs on the average only seventy-two cents.
This is good, but it does not by any means answer all the conditions;
the average American farm is located today--even with our vast network
of railways--at least ten miles from a railroad station. Now railway
building has about reached its limit so far as mileage is concerned in
this country; in the words of Stuyvesant Fish, president of the Illinois
Central Railroad Company, we have "in the United States generally, a
sufficiency of railroads." Thus the average farm is left a dozen miles
from a railway, and in all probability will be that far away a century
from now. And note: seventy-five per cent of the commerce of the world
starts for its destination on wagon roads, and we pay annually in the
United States six hundred million dollars freightage to get our produce
over our highways from the farms to the railways.
Let me restate these important facts: the average American farm is ten
miles from a railway; the railways have about reached their limit of
growth territorially; and we pay six hundred million dollars every year
to get the seventy-five per cent of our raw material and produce from
our farms to our railways.
This is the main proposition of the good roads problem, and the reason
why the road question is to be one of the great questions of the next
half century. The question is, How much can we save of this half a
billion dollars, at the least expenditure of money and in the most
beneficial way?
In this problem, as in many, the most important phase is the one most
difficult to study and most difficult to solve. It is as complex as
human life itself. It is the question of good roads as they affect the
social and moral life of our rural communities. It is easy to talk of
bad roads costing a half billion dollars a year--the answer should be
that of Hood's--"O God! that bread should be so dear, and flesh and
blood so cheap." You cannot count in terms of the stock exchange the
cost to this land of poor roads; for poor roads mean the decay of
country living, the abandonment of farms and farm-life, poor schools,
poor churches, and homes stricken with a social poverty that drives the
young men and girls into the cities. You cannot estimate the cost to
this country, in blood, brain, and muscle, of the hideous system of
public roads we have possessed in the decade passed. Look at any of our
cities to the men who guide the swift rush of commercial, social, and
religious affairs and you will find men whose birthplaces are not
preparing another such generation of men for the work of the future.
For instance, bad roads and good schools are incompatible. The coming
generation of strong men and strong women is crying out now for good
roads. "There is a close and permanent relation," said Alabama's
superintendent of education, "existing between good public roads and
good public schools. There can be no good country schools in the absence
of good country roads. Let us be encouraged by this movement looking
toward an improvement in road-building and road-working. I see in it a
better day for the boys and girls who must look to the country schools
for citizenship." "I have been longing for years," said President Jesse
of the University of Missouri, "to stump the capital state, if
necessary, in favor of the large consolidated schoolhouse rather than
the single schoolhouses sitting at the crossroads. But the wagons could
not get two hundred yards in most of our counties. Therefore I have had
to smother my zeal, hold my tongue, and wait for the consolidated
schoolhouse until Missouri wakes to the necessity of good roads. Then
not only shall we have consolidated schoolhouses, but also the principal
of the school and his wife will live in the school building, or in one
close by. The library and reading-room of the school will be the library
and reading-room of the neighborhood.... The main assembly room of the
consolidated schoolhouse will be an assembly place for public
lectures.... I am in favor of free text-books, but I tell you here and
now that free text-books are a trifle compared with good roads and the
consolidated schoolhouse." It is found that school attendance in states
where good roads abound is from twenty-five to fifty per cent greater
than in states which have not good roads. How long will it take for the
consolidated schoolhouse and increased and regular attendance to be
worth half a billion dollars to American men and women of the next
generation?
This applies with equal pertinency to what I might call the consolidated
church; good roads make it possible for a larger proportion of country
residents to enjoy the superior advantages of the splendid city
churches; in fact good roads have in certain instances been held guilty
of destroying the little country church. This could be true within only
a small radius of the cities, and the advantages to be gained outweigh,
I am sure, the loss occasioned by the closing of small churches within a
dozen miles of our large towns and cities--churches which, in many
cases, have only occasional services and are a constant financial drain
on the city churches. Farther out in the country, good roads will make
possible one strong, healthy church where perhaps half a dozen weak
organizations are made to lead a precarious existence because bad roads
make large congregations impossible throughout the larger part of the
year. This also applies to city schools, libraries, hospitals, museums,
and lyceums. Good roads will place these advantages within reach of
millions of country people who now know little or nothing of them. Once
beyond driving distance of the cities, good roads will make it possible
for thousands to reach the suburban railways and trolley lines. Who can
estimate in mere dollars these advantages to the quality of American
citizenship a century hence? American farms are taxed by the government
and pay one-half of the seven hundred million dollars it takes yearly to
operate this government. After receiving one-half, what per cent does
the government return to them? Only ten per cent. Ninety per cent goes
to the direct or indirect benefit of those living in our cities. Where
does the government build its fine buildings, where does it spend its
millions on rivers and harbors? How much does it expend to ease this
burden of six hundred millions which lies so largely on the farmers of
America? A few years ago a law was passed granting $50,000 to
investigate a plan to deliver mail on rural delivery routes to our
farmers and country residents. The law was treated about as respectfully
as the long-headed Jesse Hawley who wrote a series of articles
advocating the building of the Erie Canal; a certain paper printed a few
of them, but the editor sent the remainder back saying he could not use
them--they were making his sheet an object of ridicule. Eighteen years
later the canal was built and in the first year brought in a revenue of
$492,664. So with the first Rural Free Delivery appropriation--the
postmaster general to whose hands that first $50,000 was entrusted for
experimental purposes, refused to try it and sent the money back to the
treasury. Today the Rural Free Delivery is an established fact, of
immeasurable benefit; and if any of the appropriations for it are not
expended it is not because they are being sent back to the treasury by
scrupulous officials. Rural delivery routes diverge from our towns and
cities and give the country people the advantages of a splendid post
office system. Good roads to these cities would give them a score of
advantages where now they have but this one. Like rural delivery it may
seem impracticable, but in a short space of time America will leap
forward in the front rank of the nations in point of good highways.
An execrable road system, besides bringing poor schools and poor
churches, has rendered impossible any genuine community of social
interests among country people. At the very season when the farm work is
light and social intercourse feasible, at that season the highways have
been impassable. To this and the poor schools and churches may be
attributed the saddest and really most costly social revolution in
America in the past quarter of a century. The decline of country living
must in the nature of things prove disastrously costly to any nation.
"The roar of the cannon and the gleam of swords," wrote that brilliant
apostle of outdoor life, Dr. W. H. H. Murray, "is less significant than
the destruction of New England homesteads, the bricking up of New
England fireplaces and the doing away with the New England well-sweep;
for these show a change in the nature of the circulation itself, and
prove that the action of the popular heart has been interrupted,
modified and become altogether different from what it was." In the
popular mind the benefits of country living are common only as a fad;
the boy who goes to college and returns to the farm again is one of a
thousand. Who wants to be landlocked five months of the year, without
social advantages? Good roads, in one generation, would accomplish a
social revolution throughout the United States that would greatly tend
to better our condition and brighten the prospect of future strength.
President Winston of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture
said: "It might be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that bad roads
are unfavorable to matrimony and increase of population." Seven of the
most stalwart lads and beautiful lasses of Greece were sent each year to
Crete to be sacrificed to the Minotaur; bad roads in America send
thousands of boys and girls into our cities to the Minotaurs of evil
because conditions in the country do not make for the social happiness
for which they naturally yearn.
Thus we may hint at the greater, more serious, phase of the road
problem. Beside it, the financial feature of the problem can have no
place; the farm has been too much to the American nation, its product of
boys and girls has been too eternally precious to the cause of liberty
for which our nation stands, to permit a system of highways on this
continent which will make it a place where now in the twentieth century
foreigners, only, can be happy. The sociological side of the road
question is of more moment today in this country, so far as the health
of our body politic in the future is concerned, than nine-tenths of the
questions most prominent in the two political platforms that come
annually before the people.
William Jennings Bryan, when addressing the Good Roads Convention at St.
Louis in 1903, said:
"It is a well-known fact, or a fact easily ascertained, that the people
in the country, while paying their full share of county, state, and
federal taxes, receive as a rule only the general benefits of
government, while the people in the cities have, in addition to the
protection afforded by the Government, the advantage arising from the
expenditure of public moneys in their midst. The county seat of a
county, as a rule, enjoys the refreshing influence of an expenditure of
county money out of proportion to its population. The capital of a state
and the city where the state institutions are located, likewise receive
the benefit of an expenditure of public money out of proportion to their
population. When we come to consider the distribution of the moneys
collected by the Federal Government, we find that the cities, even in a
larger measure, monopolize the incidental benefits that arise from the
expenditure of public moneys.
"The appropriations of the last session of Congress amounted to
$753,484,018, divided as follows:
Agriculture $ 5,978,160
Army 78,138,752
Diplomatic and consular service 1,968,250
District of Columbia 8,647,497
Fortifications 7,188,416
Indians 8,512,950
Legislative, executive, and judicial departments 27,595,958
Military Academy 563,248
Navy 81,877,291
Pensions $ 139,847,600
Post Office Department 153,401,409
Sundry Civil 82,722,955
Deficiencies 21,561,572
Permanent annual 132,589,820
Miscellaneous 3,250,000
"It will be seen that the appropriation for the Department of
Agriculture was insignificant when compared with the total
appropriations--less than one per cent. The appropriations for the Army
and Navy alone amounted to twenty-five times the sum appropriated for
the Department of Agriculture. An analysis of the expenditures of the
Federal Government will show that an exceedingly small proportion of the
money raised from all the people gets back to the farmers directly; how
much returns indirectly it is impossible to say, but certain it is that
the people who live in the cities receive by far the major part of the
special benefits that come from the showering of public money upon the
community. The advantage obtained locally from government expenditures
is so great that the contests for county seats and state capitals
usually exceed in interest, if not in bitterness, the contests over
political principles and policies. So great is the desire to secure an
appropriation of money for local purposes that many will excuse a
Congressman's vote on either side of any question if he can but secure
the expenditure of a large amount of public money in his district.
"I emphasize this because it is a fact to which no reference has been
made. The point is that the farmer not only pays his share of the taxes,
but more than his share, yet very little of what he pays gets back to
him.
"People in the city pay not only less than their share, as a rule, but
get back practically all of the benefits that come from the expenditure
of the people's money. Let me show you what I mean when I say that the
farmer pays more than his share. The farmer has visible property, and
under any form of direct taxation visible property pays more than its
share. Why? Because the man with visible property always pays. If he has
an acre of land the assessor can find it. He can count the horses and
cattle.... The farmer has nothing that escapes taxation; and, in all
direct taxation, he not only pays on all he has, but the farmer who has
visible property has to pay a large part of the taxes that ought to be
paid by the owners of invisible property, who escape taxation. I repeat,
therefore, that the farmer not only pays more than his share of all
direct taxation, but that when you come to expend public moneys you do
not spend them on the farms, as a rule. You spend them in the cities,
and give the incidental benefits to the people who live in the cities.
"When indirect taxation is considered, the farmer's share is even more,
because when you come to collect taxes through indirection and on
consumption, you make people pay not in proportion to what they have but
in proportion to what they need, and God has so made us that the farmer
needs as much as anybody else, even though he may not have as much with
which to supply his needs as other people. In our indirect taxation,
therefore, for the support of the Federal Government, the farmers pay
even more out of proportion to their wealth and numbers. We should
remember also that when we collect taxes through consumption we make
the farmer pay not only on that which is imported, but upon much of that
which is produced at home. Thus the farmer's burden is not measured by
what the treasury receives, but is frequently many times what the
treasury receives. Thus under indirect taxation the burden upon the
farmer is greater than it ought to be; yet when you trace the
expenditure of public moneys distributed by the Federal Government you
find that even in a larger measure special benefits go to the great
cities and not to the rural communities.
"The improvement of the country roads can be justified also on the
ground that the farmer, the first and most important of the producers of
wealth, ought to be in position to hold his crop and market it at the
most favorable opportunity, whereas at present he is virtually under
compulsion to sell it as soon as it is matured, because the roads may
become impassable at any time during the fall, winter, or spring.
Instead of being his own warehouseman, the farmer is compelled to employ
middlemen, and share with them the profits upon his labor. I believe,
as a matter of justice to the farmer, he ought to have roads that will
enable him to keep his crop and take it to the market at the best time,
and not place him in a position where they can run down the price of
what he has to sell during the months he must sell, and then, when he
has disposed of it, run the price up and give the speculator what the
farmer ought to have. The farmer has a right to insist upon roads that
will enable him to go to town, to church, to the schoolhouse, and to the
homes of his neighbors, as occasion may require; and, with the extension
of rural mail delivery, he has additional need for good roads in order
that he may be kept in communication with the outside world, for the
mail routes follow the good roads.
"A great deal has been said, and properly so, in regard to the influence
of good roads upon education. In the convention held at Raleigh, North
Carolina, the account of which I had the pleasure of reading, great
emphasis was placed upon the fact that you can not have a school system
such as you ought to have unless the roads are in condition for the
children to go to school. While we are building great libraries in the
great cities we do not have libraries in the country; and there ought to
be a library in every community. Instead of laying upon the farmer the
burden of buying his own books, we ought to make it possible for the
farmers to have the same opportunity as the people in the city to use
books in common, and thus economize on the expense of a library. I agree
with Professor Jesse in regard to the consolidation of schoolhouses in
such a way as to give the child in the country the same advantages which
the child in the city has. We have our country schools, but it is
impossible in any community to have a well-graded school with only a few
pupils, unless you go to great expense. In cities, when a child gets
through the graded school he can remain at home, and, without expense to
himself or his parents, go on through the high school. But if the
country boy or girl desires to go from the graded school to the high
school, as a rule it is necessary to go to the county seat and there
board with some one; so the expense to the country child is much
greater than to the child in the city. I was glad, therefore, to hear
Professor Jesse speak of such a consolidation of schools as will give to
the children in the country advantages equal to those enjoyed by the
children of the city.
"And as you study this subject, you find it reaches out in every
direction; it touches us at every vital point. What can be of more
interest to us than the schooling of our children? What can be of more
interest to every parent than bringing the opportunity of educational
instruction within the reach of every child? It does not matter whether
a man has children himself or not.... Every citizen of a community is
interested in the intellectual life of that community. Sometimes I have
heard people complain that they were overburdened with taxes for the
education of other people's children. My friends, the man who has no
children can not afford to live in a community where there are children
growing up in ignorance; the man with none has the same duty as the man
with many, barring the personal pride of the parent. I say, therefore,
that anything that contributes to the general diffusion of knowledge,
anything that makes more educated boys and girls throughout our country,
is a matter of intense interest to every citizen, whether he be the
father of a family or not; whether he lives in the country or in the
town.
"And ought not the people have the opportunity to attend church? I am
coming to believe that what we need in this country, even more than
education of the intellect, is the education of the moral side of our
nature. I believe, with Jefferson, that the church and the state should
be separate. I believe in religious freedom, and I would not have any
man's conscience fettered by act of law; but I do believe that the
welfare of this nation demands that man's moral nature shall be educated
in keeping with his brain and with his body. In fact, I have come to
define civilization as the harmonious development of the body, the mind,
and the heart. We make a mistake if we believe that this nation can
fulfil its high destiny and mission either with mere athletes or mere
scholars. We need the education of the moral sense; and if these good
roads will enable men, women, and children to go more frequently to
church, and there hear expounded the gospel and receive inspiration
therefrom, that alone is reason enough for good roads.
"There is a broader view of this question, however, that deserves
consideration. The farm is, and always has been, conspicuous because of
the physical development it produces, the intellectual strength it
furnishes, and the morality it encourages. The young people in the
country find health and vigor in the open air and in the exercise which
farm life gives; they acquire habits of industry and economy; their work
gives them opportunity for thought and reflection; their contact with
nature teaches them reverence, and their environment promotes good
habits. The farms supply our colleges with their best students and they
also supply our cities with leaders in business and professional life.
In the country there is neither great wealth nor great poverty--'the
rich and the poor meet together' and recognize that 'the Lord is the
father of them all.' There is a fellowship, and, to use the word in its
broadest sense, a democracy in the country that is much needed today to
temper public opinion and protect the foundations of free government. A
larger percentage of the people in the country than in the city study
public questions, and a smaller percentage are either corrupt or are
corrupted. It is important, therefore, for the welfare of our government
and for the advancement of our civilization that we make life upon the
farm as attractive as possible. Statistics have shown the constant
increase in the urban population and the constant decrease in the rural
population from decade to decade. Without treading upon controversial
ground or considering whether this trend has been increased by
legislation hostile to the farm, it will be admitted that the government
is in duty bound to guard jealously the interests of the rural
population, and, as far as it can, make farm life inviting. In the
employment of modern conveniences the city has considerably outstripped
the country, and naturally so, for in a densely populated community the
people can by coöperation supply themselves with water, light, and rapid
transit at much smaller cost than they can in a sparsely settled
country. But it is evident that during the last few years much has been
done to increase the comforts of the farm. In the first place, the rural
mail delivery has placed millions of farmers in daily communication with
the world. It has brought not only the letter but the newspaper to the
door. Its promised enlargement and extension will make it possible for
the wife to order from the village store and have her purchases
delivered by the mail-carrier. The telephone has also been a great boon
to the farmer. It lessens by one-half the time required to secure a
physician in case of accident or illness--an invention which every
mother can appreciate. The extension of the electric-car line also
deserves notice. It is destined to extend the borders of the city and to
increase the number of small farms at the expense of flats and tenement
houses. The suburban home will bring light and hope to millions of
children.
"But after all this, there still remains a pressing need for better
country roads. As long as mud placed an embargo upon city traffic, the
farmer could bear his mud-made isolation with less complaint, but with
the improvement of city streets and with the establishment of parks and
boulevards, the farmer's just demands for better roads find increasing
expression."
The late brilliant congressman, Hon. Thomas H. Tongue of Oregon, left on
record a few paragraphs on the sociological effect of good roads that
ought to be preserved:
"Good roads do not concern our pockets only. They may become the
instrumentalities for improved health, increased happiness and pleasure,
for refining tastes, strengthening, broadening, and elevating the
character. The toiler in the great city must have rest and recreation.
Old and young, and especially the young, with character unformed, must
and will sweeten the daily labor with some pleasure. It is not the hours
of industry, but the hours devoted to pleasure, that furnish the devil
his opportunity. It is not while we are at work but while we are at
play that temptations steal over the senses, put conscience to sleep,
despoil manhood, and destroy character. Healthful and innocent
recreations and pleasure are national needs and national blessings. They
are among the most important instrumentalities of moral reform. They are
as essential to purity of mind and soul as to healthfulness of body. Out
beyond the confines of the city, with its dust and dirt and filth,
morally and physically, these are to be found, and good roads help to
find them. What peace and inspiration may come from flowers and music,
brooks and waterfalls! How the mountains pointing heavenward, yesterday
battling with storms, today bathed with sunshine, bid you stand firm,
walk erect, look upward, cherish hope, and for light and guidance to
call upon the Creator of all light and of all wisdom! How such scenes as
these kindle the imagination of the poet, quicken and enlarge the
conception of the artist, fire the soul of the orator, purify and
elevate us all! But if love of action rather than contemplation and
reflection tempts you, how the blood thrills and the spirits rise as
one springs lightly into the saddle, caresses the slender neck of an
equine beauty, grasps firmly the reins, bids farewell to the impurities
of the city, and dashes into the hills and the valleys and the mountains
to commune with nature and nature's God. Or what joy more exquisite than
with pleasant companionship to dash along the smooth highway, drawn by a
noble American trotter? What poor city scenes can so inspire poetic
feeling, can so increase the love of the beautiful, can so elevate and
broaden and strengthen the character, and so inspire us with reverence
for the great Father of us all? But for the full enjoyment of such
pleasures good roads are indispensable.
"Another blessing to come with good roads will be the stimulus and
encouragements to rural life, farm life. The present tendency of
population to rush into the great cities makes neither for the health
nor the character, the intelligence nor the morals of the nation. It has
been said that no living man can trace his ancestry on both sides to
four generations of city residents. The brain and the brawn and the
morals of the city are constantly replenished from the country. The best
home life is upon the farm, and the most sacred thing in America is the
American home. It lies at the foundation of our institutions, of our
health, of our character, our prosperity, our happiness, here and
hereafter. The snares and pitfalls set for our feet are not near the
home. The pathways upon which stones are hardest and thorns sharpest are
not those that lead to the sacred spot hallowed by a father's love and a
mother's prayers. The bravest and best of men, the purest and holiest
women, are those who best love, cherish, and protect the home. God guard
well the American home, and this done, come all the powers of darkness
and they shall not prevail against us. Fatherhood and motherhood are
nowhere more sacred, more holy, or better beloved than upon the farm.
The ties of brotherhood and sisterhood are nowhere more sweet or tender.
The fair flower of patriotism there reaches its greatest perfection.
Every battlefield that marks the world's progress, the victory of
liberty over tyranny or right over wrong, has been deluged with the
blood of farmers. He evades neither the taxgatherer nor the recruiting
officer. He shirks the performance of no public duty. In the hour of its
greatest needs our country never called for help upon its stalwart
yeomen when the cry was unheeded. The sons and daughters of American
farmers are filling the seminaries and colleges and universities of the
land. From the American farm home have gone in the past, as they are
going now, leaders in literature, the arts and sciences, presidents of
great universities, the heads of great industrial enterprises, governors
of states, and members of Congress. They have filled the benches of the
supreme court, the chairs of the cabinet, and the greatest executive
office in the civilized world. Our greatest jurist, our greatest
soldier, our greatest orators, Webster and Clay, our three greatest
presidents, Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley, were the product of rural
homes. The great presidents which Virginia has given to the nation,
whose monuments are all around us, whose remains rest in your midst,
whose fame is immortal, drew life and inspiration from rural homes. The
typical American today is the American farmer. The city life, with its
bustle and stir, its hurry and rush, its feverish anxiety for wealth,
position, and rank in society, its fretting over ceremonies and
precedents, is breaking down the health and intellect and the morals of
its inhabitants. These must be replenished from the rural home. Whatever
shall tend to create a love for country life, to decrease the rush for
the city, instil a desire to dwell in the society of nature, will make
for the health, the happiness, the refinement, the moral and
intellectual improvement of the people. Nothing will contribute more to
this than the improvement of our common roads, to facilitate the means
of communication between one section of the country and the other, and
between all and the city."
* * * * *
Turning now from the high plane of the social and moral effect of good
roads, let us look at the financial side of the question.
Good roads pay well. In urging good roads in Virginia, an official of
the Southern Railway said that if good roads improved the value of
lands only one dollar per acre, the gain to the state by the improvement
of all the roads would be twenty-five million dollars. Yet this is an
inconceivably low estimate; lands upon improved roads advance in value
from four to twenty dollars per acre. Virginia could therefore expect a
benefit from improved highways of at least one hundred million
dollars--more than enough to improve her roads many times over. Indeed
this matter of the increase in value of land occasioned by good roads
can hardly be overestimated. Near all of our large towns and cities the
land will advance until it is worth per foot what it was formerly worth
per acre. Take Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Beginning in 1880 to
macadamize three or four miles of road a year with an annual fund of
$10,000, the county now has over a hundred miles of splendid roads; the
county seat has increased in population from 5,000 to 30,000. "I know of
a thirty-acre farm," said President Barringer of the University of
Virginia, a native of that county, "that cost ten dollars an acre, and
forty-six dollars an acre has been refused for it, and yet not a dollar
has been put on it, not even to fertilize it. Some of the farms five and
six miles from town have quadrupled in value." In Alabama the same thing
has been found true. "The result of building these roads," said Mayor
Drennen of Birmingham, "is that the property adjoining them has more
than doubled in value." That wise financier, D. F. Francis, President of
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, when suggesting that Missouri would
do well to bond herself for one hundred million to build good roads,
said: "The average increase in the value of the lands in Missouri would
be at least five dollars per acre." Taking President Francis at his
word, the difference between the value of Missouri before and after the
era of good roads would buy up the four hundred and eighty-four state
banks in Missouri eleven times over. What President Francis estimates
Missouri would be worth with good roads over and above what her farms
are now worth would buy all the goods that the city of St. Louis
produces in a year. In other words, the estimated gain to Missouri would
be more than two hundred and twenty million dollars.
Passing the increased value of lands, look at the equally vital question
of increased values of crops. Take first the crops that would be raised
on lands not cultivated today but which would be cultivated in a day of
good roads. Look at Virginia, where only one-third of the land is being
cultivated; the value of crops which it is certain would ultimately be
raised on land that is now unproductive would amount to at least sixty
million dollars. The general passenger agent of the Oregon Railway and
Navigation Company said recently that his lines were crying out for
wheat to ship to China; "we have about reached the limit of our
facilities; twelve or fifteen miles is the only distance farmers can
afford to haul their wheat to us. Make it possible for them to haul it
double that distance and you will double the business of our railway."
And the business of local nature done by a railroad is a good criterion
of the prosperity of the country in which it operates.
Crops now raised on lands within reach of railways would of course be
enhanced in value by good roads; more loads could be taken at less cost;
weather interferences would not enter into the question. But of more
moment perhaps than anything else, a vast amount of land thus placed
within quick reach of our towns and cities would be given over to
gardening for city markets, a line of agriculture immensely profitable,
as city people well know. "The citizens of Birmingham," said the mayor
of that city, "enjoy the benefits of fresh products raised on the farms
along these [improved] roads. The dairymen, the truck farmers, and
others ... are put in touch with our markets daily, thereby receiving
the benefits of any advance in farm products."
Poor roads are like the interest on a debt, and they are working against
one all the time. It is noticeable that when good roads are built,
farmers, who are always conservative, adjust themselves more readily to
conditions. They are in touch with the world and they feel more keenly
its pulse, much to their advantage. Too many farmers, damned by bad
roads, are guilty of the faults of which Birmingham's mayor accused
Alabama planters: "The farmers in this section," he said, "are selling
cotton today for less than seven cents per pound, while they could have
sold Irish potatoes within the past few months at two dollars per
bushel." Farmers over the entire country are held to be slow in taking
advantage of their whole opportunities; bad roads take the life out of
them and out of their horses; they think somewhat as they
ride--desperately slow; and they will not think faster until they ride
faster. It is said that a man riding on a heavy southern road saw a hat
in the mud; stopping to pick it up he was surprised to find a head of
hair beneath it: then a voice came out of the ground: "Hold on, boss,
don't take my hat; I've got a powerful fine mule down here somewhere if
I can ever get him out." You can write and speak to farmers until
doomsday about taking quick advantage of the exigencies of the markets
that are dependent on them, but if they have to hunt for their horses in
a hog-wallow road all your talk will be in vain.
When we seriously face the question of how a fine system of highways is
to be built in this country, it is found to be a complex problem. For
about ten years now it has been seriously debated, and these years have
seen a large advance; until now the problem has become almost national.
One great fundamental idea has been proposed and is now generally
accepted by all who have paid the matter any attention, and that is that
those who live along our present roads cannot be expected to bear the
entire cost of building good roads. This may be said to be settled and
need no debate. Practically all men are agreed that the rural population
should not bear the entire expense of an improvement of which they,
however, are to be the chief beneficiaries; the state itself, in all its
parts, benefits from the improved conditions which follow improved
roads, and should bear a portion of the expense. Do not think that city
people escape the tax of bad roads. In St. Louis four hundred thousand
people consume five hundred tons of produce every day. The cost of
hauling this produce over bad roads averages twenty-five cents per mile
and over good roads about ten cents per mile, making a difference of
fifteen cents per mile per ton. For five hundred tons, hauled from farms
averaging ten miles distance, this would be seven hundred and fifty
dollars per day, or a quarter of a million dollars a year--enough to
build fifty miles of macadamized road a year. The farmers shift as much
as they can of their heavy tax on the city people--the consumer pays the
freight. Everybody is concerned in the "mud-tax" of bad roads.
And so what is known as the "state aid" plan has become popular. By this
plan the state pays a fixed part of the cost of building roads out of
the general fund raised by taxation of all the people and all the
property in the state. Under these circumstances corporations,
railroads, and the various representatives of the concentrated wealth of
the cities all contribute to this fund. The funds are expended in rural
districts and are supplemented by money raised by local taxation.
The state of New York, which has a good system, pays one-half of the
good roads fund; each county pays thirty-five per cent, and the
township fifteen per cent. Pennsylvania has appropriated at one time six
and a half millions as a good roads fund. The new Ohio law apportions
the cost of new roads as follows: The state pays twenty-five per cent,
the townships twenty-five per cent, and the county fifty per cent. Of
the twenty-five per cent paid by the townships fifteen per cent is to be
paid by owners of abutting property and ten per cent by the township as
a whole. In New Jersey, which has a model system of road-building and
many model roads, the state pays a third, the county a third, and the
property owners a third.
A more recent theory in American road-building which has been advanced
is a plan of national aid.[1] This is no new thing in America, though it
has been many years since the government has paid attention to roadways.
In the early days the wisest of our statesmen advocated large plans of
internal improvement; one great national road, as we have seen, was
built by the War Department from the Potomac almost to the Mississippi,
through Wheeling, Columbus, Indianapolis and Vandalia, at a cost of over
six million dollars. And this famous national road was built, in part,
upon an earlier pathway, cut through Ohio by Ebenezer Zane in 1796, also
at the order of Congress, and for which he received grants of land which
formed the nucleus of the three thriving Ohio cities, Zanesville,
Lancaster, and Chillicothe. The constitutionality of road-building by
the government was questioned by some, but that clause granting it the
right to establish post-offices and post roads "must, in every view, be
a harmless power," said James Madison, "and may perhaps, by judicious
management, become productive of great public conveniency. Nothing which
tends to facilitate the intercourse between the states can be deemed
unworthy of the public care."[2] But the government was interested not
only in building roads but in many other phases of public improvement;
it took stock in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; Congress voted $30,000
to survey the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal route, and the work was done by
government engineers. When railways superseded highways, the government
was almost persuaded to complete the old National Road with rails and
ties instead of broken stone. When the Erie Canal was proposed, a vast
scheme of government aid was favored by leading statesmen;[3] the
government has greatly assisted the western railways by gigantic grants
of land worth one hundred and thirty-eight million dollars. The vast
funds of private capital that have been seeking investment in this
country, at first in turnpike, plank, and macadamized roads, then in
canals, and later in railways, has rendered government aid comparatively
unnecessary. In the last few years the only work of internal improvement
aided by the government is the improvement of the rivers and harbors,
which for 1904 takes over fifty millions of revenue a year. The sum of
$130,565,485 has been well spent on river and harbor improvement in the
past seven years. Not only are the great rivers, such as the Ohio and
Mississippi, improved, but lesser streams. A short time ago I made a
journey of one hundred miles down the Elk River in West Virginia in a
boat eleven inches deep and twelve feet long; a channel all the way down
had been made about two feet wide by picking out the stones; the United
States did this at an expense of fifteen hundred dollars. The groceries
and dry goods for thousands were poled up that river in dug-outs through
that two-foot channel. I doubt if a two-wheel vehicle could traverse the
road which runs throughout that valley, but I know a four-wheel vehicle
could not.
The advocates of national aid urge the right to establish post roads; "I
had an ancestor in the United States Senate," said ex-Senator Butler of
South Carolina, "who refused to vote a dollar for the improvement of
Charleston Harbor; but almost the first act of my official life was to
get an appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand for that purpose.
There is as ample constitutional warrant for the improvement of public
roads out of the United States Treasury--as large as there is for the
improvement of rivers and harbors, or for the support of the
agricultural colleges."
"But few judicial opinions have been rendered on this subject. In the
case of Dickey against the Turnpike Company, the Kentucky court of
appeals decided that the power given to Congress by the constitution to
establish post roads enabled them to make, repair, keep open, and
improve post roads when they shall deem the exercise of the power
expedient. But in the exercise of the right of eminent domain on this
subject the United States has no right to adopt and use roads, bridges,
or ferries constructed and owned by states, corporations, and
individuals without their consent or without making to the parties
concerned just compensation. If the United States elects to use such
accommodations, it stands upon the same footing and is subject to the
same tolls and regulations as a private individual. It has been asserted
that Jefferson was opposed to the appropriation of money for internal
improvements, but, in 1808, in writing to Mr. Lieper, he said, 'Give us
peace until our revenues are liberated from debt, ... and then during
peace we may chequer our whole country with canals, roads, etc.' Writing
to J. W. Eppes in 1813 he says, 'The fondest wish of my heart ever was
that the surplus portion of these taxes destined for the payment of the
Revolutionary debt should, when that object is accomplished, be
continued by annual or biennial reënactments and applied in times of
peace to the improvement of our country by canals, roads, and useful
institutions.' Congress has always claimed the power to lay out,
construct, and improve post roads with the assent of the states through
which they pass; also, to open, construct, and improve military roads on
like terms; and the right to cut canals through the several states with
their consent for the purpose of promoting and securing internal
commerce and for the safe and economical transportation of military
stores in times of war. The president has sometimes objected to the
exercise of this constitutional right, but Congress has never denied it.
Cooley, the highest authority on constitutional law, says:
"'Every road within a State, including railroads, canals, turnpikes, and
navigable streams, existing or created within a State, becomes a
post-road, whenever by law or by the action of the Post-Office
Department provision is made for the transportation of the mail upon or
over it. Many statesmen and jurists have contended that the power
comprehends the laying out and construction of any roads which Congress
may deem proper and needful for the conveyance of the mails, and keeping
them repaired for the purpose.'"[4]
It has been many years since the United States government was interested
considerably in mail routes on the roadways of this country; in the past
half century the government has spent but one hundred thousand dollars
for the improvement of mail roads. The new era of rural delivery brings
a return, in one sense, of the old stagecoach days. A thousand country
roads are now used daily by government mail-carriers, but the government
demands that the roads used be kept in good condition by the local
authorities. Thus the situation is reversed; instead of holding it to be
the duty of the government to deliver mail in rural districts, Congress
holds that the debt is on the other side and that, in return for the
boon of rural delivery, the rural population must make good roads.
Madison well saw that government improvement of roads as mail routes
would be of great general benefit; for in _The Federalist_ he adds that
the power "may perhaps by judicious management become productive of
great public conveniency."
[Illustration: A GOOD-ROADS TRAIN
[_The Southern Roadway's good-roads train, October 29, 1901, consisting
of two coaches for officials and road experts and ten cars of road
machinery; for itinerary through Virginia, North Carolina. Tennessee,
Alabama, and Georgia_]]
One great work the government has done and is doing. It has founded an
Office of Public Road Inquiries (described elsewhere) at Washington, and
under the efficient management of Hon. Martin Dodge and Maurice O.
Eldridge a great work of education has been carried on--samples of good
roads have been built, good road trains have been sent out by the
Southern Railway and the Illinois Central into the South, a laboratory
has been established at Washington, under the efficient charge of
Professor L. W. Page, for the testing of materials free of charge,
and a great deal of road information has been published and sent out.
The Brownlow Bill, introduced into Congress at the last session, is the
latest plan of national aid, and is thus described by Hon. Martin Dodge
of the Office of Public Road Inquiries:
"The bill provides for an appropriation of twenty million dollars. This
is to be used only in connection and coöperation with the various states
or civil subdivisions of states that may make application to the General
Government for the purpose of securing its aid to build certain roads.
The application must be made for a specific road to be built, and the
state or county making the application must be ready to pay half of the
cost, according to the plans and specifications made by the General
Government. In no case can any state or any number of counties within
the state receive any greater proportion of the twenty million dollars
than the population of the state bears to the population of the United
States.
"In other words, all of the plans must originate in the community. The
bill does not provide that the United States shall go forward and say a
road shall be built here or a road shall be built there. The United
States shall hold itself in readiness, when requested to do so, to
coöperate with those who have selected a road they desire to build,
provided they are ready and willing to pay one-half the cost. Then, if
the road is a suitable one and is approved by the government
authorities, they go forward and build that road, each contributing
one-half of the expense. In order to prevent the state losing
jurisdiction of the road, it is provided that it may go forward and
build the road if it will accept the government engineer's estimate. For
instance, if a state or county asks for ten miles of road, the estimated
cost of which is thirty thousand dollars, and the state or county
officials say they are willing to undertake the work for thirty thousand
dollars, the government authorizes them to go ahead and build that road
according to specifications, and when it is finished the government will
pay the fifteen thousand dollars. If the state or county does not wish
to take the contract, the General Government will advertise and give it
to the lowest bidder, and will pay its contributory share and the other
party will pay its contributory share.
"It is no part of the essential principle involved in this national aid
plan that the exact proportion should be fifty per cent on each side.
Any other figure can be adopted. Some think ten per cent is sufficient;
some think thirty-three and one-third is the proper percentage; others
think twenty-five per cent only should be paid by the government,
twenty-five per cent by the state, twenty-five per cent by the county,
and twenty-five per cent by the township. The one idea that seems to be
generally accepted is that the government should do something."
Thus the interest in the great question is beginning to forge to the
front; through the Office of Public Road Inquiries a great deal of
information is being circulated touching all phases of the question.
There is a fine spirit of independence displayed by the leaders of the
movement; no one plan is over-urged; the situation is such that the
final concerted popular action will come from the real governing
power--the people. When they demand that the United States shall not
have the poorest rural roads of any civilized and some uncivilized
nations, we as a nation will hasten into the fore front and finally lead
the world in this vital department of civic life, as we are leading it
in so many other departments today.
[Illustration: SAMPLE STEEL TRACK FOR COMMON ROADS
[_On the driver's right is seated Hon. Martin Dodge, since 1898 Director
of the Office of Public Road Inquiries_]]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See _post_, pp. 68-80.
[2] _The Federalist_, p. 198.
[3] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. xiv, p. 57.
[4] Thomas M. Cooley, _Constitutional Law_ (Boston, 1891), pp. 85-86.
CHAPTER II
GOVERNMENT COÖPERATION IN OBJECT-LESSON ROAD WORK[5]
In a government having a composite nature like that of the United States
it is not always easy to determine just what share the General
Government, the state government, and the local government should
respectively take in carrying out highway work, though it is generally
admitted that there should be coöperation among them all.
In the early history of the Republic the National Government itself laid
out and partially completed a great national system of highways
connecting the East with the West, and the capital of the nation with
its then most distant possessions. Fourteen million dollars in all was
appropriated by acts of Congress to be devoted to this purpose, an
amount almost equal to that paid for the Louisiana Purchase. In other
words, it cost the government substantially as much to make that
territory accessible as to purchase it; and what is true of that
territory in its larger sense is also true in a small way of nearly
every tract of land that is opened up and used for the purposes of
civilization; that is to say, it will cost as much to build up, improve,
and maintain the roads of any given section of the country as the land
in its primitive condition is worth; and the same rule will apply in
most cases after the land value has advanced considerably beyond that of
its primitive condition. It is a general rule that the suitable
improvement of a highway within reasonable limitations will double the
value of the land adjacent to it. Seven million dollars, half of the
total sum appropriated by acts of Congress for the national road system,
was devoted to building the Cumberland Road from Cumberland, Maryland,
to St. Louis, Missouri, the most central point in the great Louisiana
Purchase, and seven hundred miles west of Cumberland. The total cost of
this great road was wholly paid out of the United States Treasury, and
though never fully completed on the western end, it is the longest
straight road ever built by any government. It passes through the
capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the cost per mile was,
approximately, ten thousand dollars. It furnishes the only important
instance the country has ever had of the General Government providing a
highway at its own expense. The plan, however, was never carried to
completion, and since its abandonment two generations ago, the people of
the different states have provided their own highways. For the most part
they have delegated their powers either to individuals, companies, or
corporations to build toll roads, or to the minor political subdivisions
and municipalities to build free roads.
With the passing of the toll-road system, the withdrawal of the General
Government from the field of actual road construction, and the various
state governments doing little or nothing, the only remaining active
agent occupying the entire great field is the local government in each
community; and while these various local governments have done and are
still doing the best they can under the circumstances, there is great
need that their efforts should be supplemented, their revenues enlarged,
and their skill in the art of road construction increased.
The skill of the local supervisor was sufficient in primitive times, so
long as his principal duties consisted in clearing the way of trees,
logs, stumps, and other obstructions, and shaping the earth of which the
roadbed was composed into a little better form than nature had left it;
and the resources at his command were sufficient so long as he was
authorized to call on every able-bodied male citizen between twenty-one
and forty-five years of age to do ten days' labor annually on the road,
especially when the only labor expected was that of dealing with the
material found on the spot. But with the changed conditions brought
about by the more advanced state of civilization, after the rights of
way have been cleared of their obstructions and the earth roads graded
into the form of turnpikes, it became necessary to harden their
surfaces with material which often must be brought from distant places.
In order to accomplish this, expert skill is required in the selection
of materials, money instead of labor is required to pay for the cost of
transportation, and machinery must be substituted for the hand processes
and primitive methods heretofore employed in order to crush the rock and
distribute it in the most economical manner on the roadbed. Skill and
machinery are also required to roll and consolidate the material so as
to form a smooth, hard surface and a homogeneous mass impervious to
water.
The local road officer now not only finds himself deficient in skill and
the proper kind of resources, but he discovers in many cases that the
number of persons subject to his call for road work has greatly
diminished. The great cities of the North have absorbed half of the
population in all the states north of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi, and those living in these great cities are not subject to
the former duties of working the roads, nor do they pay any compensation
in money in lieu thereof. So the statute labor has not only become
unsuitable for the service to be performed, but it is, as stated,
greatly diminished. In the former generations substantially all the
people contributed to the construction of the highways under the statute
labor system, but at the present time not more than half the population
is subject to this service, and this, too, at a time when the need for
highway improvement is greatest.
While the former ways and means are inadequate or inapplicable to
present needs and conditions, there are other means more suitable for
the service, and existing in ample proportion for every need. The
tollgate-keeper cannot be called upon to restore the ancient system of
turnpikes and plank roads to be maintained by a tax upon vehicles
passing over them, but there can be provided a general fund in each
county sufficient to build up free roads better than the toll roads and
with a smaller burden of cost upon the people. The statute labor in the
rural districts cannot be depended upon, because it is unsuitable to the
service now required and spasmodic in its application, when it should be
perennial; but this statute labor can be commuted to a money tax, with
no hardships upon the citizens and with great benefit to the highway
system.
Former inhabitants of the abandoned farms or the deserted villages
cannot be followed to the great cities and the road tax which they
formerly paid be collected from them again to improve the country roads;
but it can be provided that all the property owners in every city, as
well as in every county, shall pay a money tax into a general fund,
which shall be devoted exclusively to the improvement of highways in the
rural districts. The state itself can maintain a general fund out of
which a portion of the cost of every principal highway in the state
shall be paid, and by so doing all the people of the state will
contribute to improving the highways, as they once did in the early
history of the nation, when substantially all the wealth and population
was distributed almost equally throughout the settled portions of the
country.
Having a general fund of money instead of statute labor, it would be
possible to introduce more scientific and more economical methods of
construction with coöperation. This coöperation, formerly applied with
good results to the primitive conditions, but which has been partially
lost by the diminution in the number and skill of the co-workers, would
be restored again in a great measure by drawing the money with which to
improve the roads out of a general fund to which all had contributed.
In many countries the army has been used to advantage in time of peace
in building up and maintaining the highways. There is no army in this
country for such a purpose, but there is an army of prisoners in every
state, whose labor is so directed, and has been so directed for
generations past, that it adds little or nothing to the common wealth.
The labor of these prisoners, properly applied and directed, would be of
great benefit and improvement to the highways, and would add greatly to
the national wealth, while at the same time it would lighten the
pressure of competition with free labor by withdrawing the prison labor
from the manufacture of commercial articles and applying it to work not
now performed, that is, the building of highways or preparing material
to be used therefor.
The General Government, having withdrawn from the field of road
construction in 1832, has since done little in that line until very
recently. Eight years ago Congress appropriated a small sum of money for
the purpose of instituting a sort of inquiry into the prevailing
condition of things pertaining to road matters. This appropriation has
been continued from year to year and increased during the last two years
with a view of coöperating to a limited extent with other efforts in
road construction.
The General Government can perform certain duties pertaining to
scientific road improvement better than any other agency. Scientific
facts ascertained at one time by the General Government will serve for
the enlightenment of the people of all the states, and with no more cost
than would be required for each single state to make the investigation
and ascertain the facts for itself.
With a view to securing scientific facts in reference to the value of
road-building materials, the Secretary of Agriculture has established at
Washington, D. C., a mechanical and chemical laboratory for testing such
material from all parts of the country. Professor L. W. Page, late of
Harvard University, is in charge of this laboratory, and has tested many
samples of rock without charge to those having the test made. There is,
however, no test equal to the actual application of the material to the
road itself.
With a view to making more extensive tests than could be done by
laboratory work alone, the Director of the Office of Public Road
Inquiries has, during the past two years, coöperated with the local
authorities in many different states in building short sections of
object-lesson roads. In this work it is intended not only to contribute
something by way of coöperation on the part of the General Government,
but also to secure coöperation on the part of as many different
interests connected with the road question as possible. The local
community having the road built is most largely interested, and is
expected to furnish the common labor and domestic material. The
railroad companies generally coöperate, because they are interested in
having better roads to and from their railroad stations. They therefore
contribute by transporting free or at very low rates the machinery and
such foreign material as is needed in the construction of the road. The
manufacturers of earth-handling and road-building machinery coöperate by
furnishing all needed machinery for the most economical construction of
the road, and in many cases prison labor is used in preparing material
which finally goes into the completed roadbed. The contribution which
the General Government makes in this scheme of coöperation is both
actually and relatively small, but it is by means of this limited
coöperation that it has been possible to produce a large number of
object-lesson roads in different states. These have proved very
beneficial, not only in showing the scientific side of the question, but
the economical side as well.
In the year 1900 object-lesson roads were built under the direction of
the Office of Public Road Inquiries near Port Huron, Saginaw, and
Traverse City, Michigan; Springfield, Illinois; and Topeka, Kansas.
Since that time the object-lesson roads so built have been extended and
duplicated by the local authorities without further aid from the
government. The people are so well pleased with the results of these
experiments that they are making preparations for additional extensions,
aggregating many miles.
During the year 1901 sample object-lesson roads were built on a larger
scale in coöperation with the Illinois Central, Lake Shore, and Southern
railroad companies, and the National Association for Good Roads in the
states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, New
York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. In all of
these cases the coöperation has been very hearty on the part of the
state, the county, and the municipality in which the work has been done,
and the results have been very satisfactory and beneficial.
Hon. A. H. Longino, governor of Mississippi, in his speech made at the
International Good Roads Congress at Buffalo, September 17, 1901, said:
"My friends, the importance of good roads seems to me to be
so apparent, so self-evident, that the discussion thereof is
but a discussion of truisms. Much as we appreciate
railroads, rivers, and canals as means for transportation of
the commerce of the country, they are, in my judgment, of
less importance to mankind, to the masses of the people, and
to all classes of people, than are good country roads.
"I live in a section of the country where that important
subject has found at the hands of the people apparently less
appreciation and less effort toward improvement than in many
others. In behalf of the Good Roads Association, headed by
Colonel Moore and Mr. Richardson, which recently met in the
state of Mississippi, I want to say that more interest has
been aroused by their efforts concerning this important
subject among the people there than perhaps ever existed
before in the history of the state. By their work,
demonstrating what could be done by the methods which they
employed, and by their agitation of the question, the
people have become aroused as they never were before; and
since their departure from the state a large number of
counties which were not already working under the contract
system have provided for public highways, worked by
contract, requiring the contractor to give a good and
sufficient bond, a bond broad enough in its provisions and
large enough in amount to compel faithful service; and
Mississippi is today starting out on a higher plane than
ever before."
FOOTNOTES:
[5] By Hon. Martin Dodge, Director of the Office of Public Road
Inquiries.
CHAPTER III
GOOD ROADS FOR FARMERS[6]
Poor roads constitute the greatest drawback to rural life, and for the
lack of good roads the farmers suffer more than any other class. It is
obviously unnecessary, therefore, to discuss here the benefits to be
derived by them from improved roads. Suffice it to say, that those
localities where good roads have been built are becoming richer, more
prosperous, and more thickly settled, while those which do not possess
these advantages in transportation are either at a standstill or are
becoming poorer and more sparsely settled. If these conditions continue,
fruitful farms may be abandoned and rich lands go to waste. Life on a
farm often becomes, as a result of "bottomless roads," isolated and
barren of social enjoyments and pleasures, and country people in some
communities suffer such great disadvantage that ambition is checked,
energy weakened, and industry paralyzed.
Good roads, like good streets, make habitation along them most
desirable; they economize time and force in transportation of products,
reduce wear and tear on horses, harness and vehicles, and enhance the
market value of real estate. They raise the value of farm lands and farm
products, and tend to beautify the country through which they pass; they
facilitate rural mail delivery and are a potent aid to education,
religion, and sociability. Charles Sumner once said: "The road and the
schoolmaster are the two most important agents in advancing
civilization."
[Illustration: TYPICAL MACADAM ROAD NEAR BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA]
The difference between good and bad roads is often equivalent to the
difference between profit and loss. Good roads have a money value to
farmers as well as a political and social value, and leaving out
convenience, comfort, social and refined influences which good roads
always enhance, and looking at them only from the "almighty dollar"
side, they are found to pay handsome dividends each year.
People generally are beginning to realize that road-building is a public
matter, and that the best interests of American agriculture and the
American people as a whole demand the construction of good roads, and
that money wisely expended for this purpose is sure to return.
Road-making is perfected by practice, experience, and labor. Soils and
clays, sand and ores, gravels and rocks, are transformed into beautiful
roads, streets, and boulevards, by methods which conform with their
great varieties of characters and with nature's laws. The art of
road-building depends largely for its success upon being carried on in
conformity with certain general principles.
It is necessary that roads should be hard, smooth, comparatively level,
and fit for use at all seasons of the year; that they should be properly
located, or laid out on the ground, so that their grades may be such
that animate or inanimate power may be applied upon them to the best
advantage and without great loss of energy; that they should be properly
constructed, the ground well drained, the roadbed graded, shaped, and
rolled, and that they should be surfaced with the best material
procurable; that they should be properly maintained or kept constantly
in good repair.
All the important roads in the United States can be and doubtless will
be macadamized or otherwise improved in the not distant future. This
expectation should govern their present location and treatment
everywhere. Unless changes are made in the location of the roads in many
parts of this country it would be worse than folly to macadamize them.
"Any costly resurfacing of the existing roads will fasten them where
they are for generations," says General Stone. The chief difficulty in
this country is not with the surface, but with the steep grades, many of
which are too long to be reduced by cutting and filling on the present
lines, and if this could be done it would cost more in many cases than
relocating them.
Many of our roads were originally laid out without any attention to
general topography, and in most cases followed the settler's path from
cabin to cabin, the pig trail, or ran along the boundary lines of the
farms regardless of grades or direction. Most of them remain today where
they were located years ago, and where untold labor, expense, and energy
have been wasted in trying to haul over them and in endeavors to improve
their deplorable condition.
The great error is made of continuing to follow these primitive paths
with our public highways. The right course is to call in an engineer and
throw the road around the end or along the side of steep hills instead
of continuing to go over them, or to pull the road up on dry solid
ground instead of splashing through the mud and water of the creek or
swamp. Far more time and money have been wasted in trying to keep up a
single mile of one of these "pig-track" surveys than it would take to
build and keep in repair two miles of good road.
Another and perhaps greater error is made by some persons in the West
who continue to lay out their roads on "section lines." These sections
are all square, with sides running north, south, east, and west. A
person wishing to cross the country in any other than these directions
must necessarily do so in rectangular zigzags. It also necessitates very
often the crossing and recrossing of hills and valleys, which might be
avoided if the roads had been constructed on scientific principles.
[Illustration: A STUDY IN GRADING
[_The old road had a grade of eight per cent; by the improved route the
grade is four per cent_]]
In the prairie state of Iowa, for example, where roads are no worse than
in many other states, there is a greater number of roads having much
steeper grades than are found in the mountainous republic of
Switzerland. In Maryland the old stagecoach road or turnpike running
from Washington to Baltimore makes almost a "bee line," regardless of
hills or valleys, and the grades at places are as steep as ten or twelve
per cent, where by making little detours the road might have been made
perfectly level, or by running it up the hills less abruptly the grade
might have been reduced to three or four per cent, as is done in the
hilly regions of many parts of this and other countries. Straight roads
are the proper kind to have, but in hilly countries their straightness
should always be sacrificed to obtain a level surface so as to better
accommodate the people who use them.
Graceful and natural curves conforming to the lay of the land add beauty
to the landscape, besides enhancing the value of property. Not only do
level, curved roads add beauty to the landscape and make lands along
them more valuable, but the horse is able to utilize his full strength
over them; furthermore, a horse can pull only four-fifths as much on a
grade of two feet in one hundred feet, and this gradually lessens until
with a grade of ten feet in one hundred feet he can draw but one-fourth
as much as he can on a level road.
All roads should therefore wind around hills or be cut through instead
of running over them, and in many cases the former can be done without
greatly increasing the distance. To illustrate, if an apple or pear be
cut in half and one of the halves placed on a flat surface, it will be
seen that the horizontal distance around from stem to blossom is no
greater than the distance over between the same points.
The wilfulness of one or two private individuals sometimes becomes a
barrier to traffic and commerce. The great drawback to the laying out of
roads on the principle referred to is that of the necessity, in some
cases, of building them through the best lands, the choicest pastures
and orchards, instead, as they do now, of cutting around the farm line
or passing through old worn-out fields or over rocky knolls. But if
farmers wish people to know that they have good farms, good cattle,
sheep, or horses, good grain, fruit, or vegetables, they should let the
roads go through the best parts of the farms.
The difference in length between a straight road and one which is
slightly curved is less than one would imagine. Says Sganzin: "If a road
between two places ten miles apart were made to curve so that the eye
could see no farther than a quarter of a mile of it at once, its length
would exceed that of a perfectly straight road between the same points
by only about one hundred and fifty yards." Even if the distance around
a hill be much greater, it is often more economical to construct it that
way than to go over and necessitate the expenditure of large amounts of
money in reducing the grade, or a waste of much valuable time and energy
in transporting goods that way. Gillespie says "that, as a general rule,
the horizontal length of a road may be advantageously increased to avoid
an ascent by at least twenty times the perpendicular height which is
thus to be avoided--that is, to escape a hill one hundred feet high it
would be proper for the road to make such a circuit as would increase
its length two thousand feet." The mathematical axiom that "a straight
line is the shortest distance between two points" is not, therefore, the
best rule to follow in laying out a road; better is the proverb that
"the longest way round is the shortest way home."
The grade is the most important factor to be considered in the location
of roads. The smoother the road surface, the less the grade should be.
Whether the road be constructed of earth, stone, or gravel, steep grades
should always be avoided if possible. They become covered at times with
coatings of ice or slippery soil, making them very difficult to ascend
with loaded vehicles, as well as dangerous to descend. They allow water
to rush down at such a rate as to wash great gaps alongside or to carry
the surfacing material away. As the grade increases in steepness either
the load has to be diminished in proportion or more horses or power
attached. From Gillespie we find that if a horse can draw on a level one
thousand pounds, on a rise of--
1 foot in-- Pounds
100 feet he draws 900
50 feet 810
44 feet 750
40 feet 720
30 feet 640
25 feet 540
24 feet 500
20 feet 400
10 feet 250
It is therefore seen that when the grades are 1 foot in 44 feet, or 120
feet to the mile, a horse can draw only three-fourths as much as he can
on a level; where the grade is 1 foot in 24 feet, or 220 feet to the
mile, he can draw only one-half as much, and on a ten per cent grade, or
520 feet to the mile, he is able to draw only one-fourth as much as on a
level road.
As a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, just so the greatest
load which can be hauled over a road is the load which can be hauled
through the deepest mud hole or up the steepest hill on that road. The
cost of haulage is, therefore, necessarily increased in proportion to
the roughness of the surface or steepness of the grade. It costs one and
one-half times as much to haul over a road having a five per cent grade
and three times as much over one having a ten per cent grade as on a
level road. As a perfectly level road can seldom be had, it is well to
know the steepest allowable grade. If the hill be one of great length,
it is sometimes best to have the lowest part steepest, upon which the
horse is capable of exerting his full strength, and to make the slope
more gentle toward the summit, to correspond with the continually
decreasing strength of the fatigued animal.
So far as descent is concerned, a road should not be so steep that the
wagons and carriages cannot be drawn down it with perfect ease and
safety. Sir Henry Parnell considered that when the grade was no greater
than one foot in thirty-five feet, vehicles could be drawn down it at a
speed of twelve miles an hour with perfect safety. Gillespie says:
"It has been ascertained that a horse can for a short time double his
usual exertion; also, that on the best roads he exerts a pressure
against his collar of about one thirty-fifth of the load. If he can
double his exertion for a time, he can pull one thirty-fifth more, and
the slope which would force him to lift that proportion would be, as
seen from the above table, one of one in thirty-five, or about a three
per cent grade. On this slope, however, he would be compelled to double
his ordinary exertion to draw a full load, and it would therefore be the
maximum grade." Mr. Isaac B. Potter, an eminent authority upon roads,
says:
"Dirty water and watery dirt make bad going, and mud is the greatest
obstacle to the travel and traffic of the farmer. Mud is a mixture of
dirt and water. The dirt is always to be found in the roadway, and the
water, which comes in rain, snow, and frost, softens it; horses and
wagons and narrow wheel tires knead it and mix it, and it soon gets into
so bad a condition that a fairly loaded wagon cannot be hauled through
it.
"We cannot prevent the coming of this water, and it only remains for us
to get rid of it, which can be speedily done if we go about it in the
right way. Very few people know how great an amount of water falls upon
the country road, and it may surprise some of us to be told that on each
mile of an ordinary country highway three rods wide within the United
States there falls each year an average of twenty-seven thousand tons of
water. In the ordinary country dirt road the water seems to stick and
stay as if there was no other place for it, and this is only because we
have never given it a fair opportunity to run out of the dirt and find
its level in other places. We cannot make a hard road out of soft mud,
and no amount of labor and machinery will make a good dirt road that
will stay good unless some plan is adopted to get rid of the surplus
water. Water is a heavy, limpid fluid, hard to confine and easy to let
loose. It is always seeking for a chance to run down a hill; always
trying to find its lowest level."
An essential feature of a good road is good drainage, and the principles
of good drainage remain substantially the same whether the road be
constructed of earth, gravel, shells, stones, or asphalt. The first
demand of good drainage is to attend to the shape of road surface. This
must be "crowned," or rounded up toward the center, so that there may be
a fall from the center to the sides, thus compelling the water to flow
rapidly from the surface into the gutters which should be constructed on
one or both sides, and from there in turn be discharged into larger and
more open channels. Furthermore, it is necessary that no water be
allowed to flow across a roadway; culverts, tile, stone, or box drains
should be provided for that purpose.
In addition to being well covered and drained, the surface should be
kept as smooth as possible; that is, free from ruts, wheel tracks,
holes, or hollows. If any of these exist, instead of being thrown to
the side the water is held back and is either evaporated by the sun or
absorbed by the material of which the road is constructed. In the latter
case the material loses its solidity, softens and yields to the impact
of the horses' feet and the wheels of vehicles, and, like the water
poured upon a grindstone, so the water poured on a road surface which is
not properly drained assists the grinding action of the wheels in
rutting or completely destroying the surface. When water is allowed to
stand on a road the holes and ruts rapidly increase in number and size;
wagon after wagon sinks deeper and deeper, until the road finally
becomes utterly bad, and sometimes impassable, as frequently found in
many parts of the country during the winter season.
Road drainage is just as essential to a good road as farm drainage is to
a good farm. In fact, the two go hand in hand, and the better the one
the better the other, and vice versa. There are thousands of miles of
public roads in the United States which are practically impassable
during some portion of the year on account of bad drainage, while for
the same reason thousands of acres of the richest meadow and swamp lands
lie idle from year in to year out.
The wearing surface of a road must be in effect a roof; that is, the
section in the middle should be the highest part and the traveled
roadway should be made as impervious to water as possible, so that it
will flow freely and quickly into the gutters or ditches alongside. The
best shape for the cross section of a road has been found to be either a
flat ellipse or one made up of two plane surfaces sloping uniformly from
the middle to the sides and joined in the center by a small, circular
curve. Either of these sections may be used, provided it is not too flat
in the middle for good drainage or too steep at the gutters for safety.
The steepness of the slope from the center to the sides should depend
upon the nature of the surface, being greater or less according to its
roughness or smoothness. This slope ought to be greatest on earth roads,
perhaps as much in some cases as one foot in twenty feet after the
surface has been thoroughly rolled or compacted by traffic. This varies
from about one in twenty to one in thirty on a macadam road, to one in
forty or one in sixty on the various classes of pavements, and for
asphalt sometimes as low as one in eighty.
Where the road is constructed on a grade or hill the slope from the
center to the sides should be slightly steeper than that on the level
road. The best cross section for roads on grades is the one made up from
two plane surfaces sloping uniformly from the center to the sides. This
is done so as to avoid the danger of overturning near the side ditches,
which would necessarily be increased if the elliptical form were used.
The slope from the center to the sides must be steep enough to lead the
water into the side ditches instead of allowing it to run down the
middle of the road. Every wheel track on an inclined roadway becomes a
channel for carrying down the water, and unless the curvature is
sufficient these tracks are quickly deepened into water courses which
cut into and sometimes destroy the best improved road.
In order to prevent the washing out of earth roads on hills it
sometimes becomes necessary to construct water breaks; that is, broad
shallow ditches arranged so as to catch the surface water and carry it
each way into the side ditches. Such ditches retard traffic to a certain
extent, and often result in overturning vehicles; consequently they
should never be used until all other means have failed to cause the
water to flow into the side channels; neither should they be allowed to
cross the entire width of the road diagonally, but should be constructed
in the shape of the letter V. This arrangement permits teams following
the middle of the road to cross the ditch squarely and thus avoid the
danger of overturning. These ditches should not be deeper than is
absolutely necessary to throw the water off the surface, and the part in
the center should be the shallowest.
Unfortunately farmers and road masters have a fixed idea that one way to
prevent hills, long and short, from washing is to heap upon them
quantities of those original tumular obstructions known indifferently as
"thank-you-ma'ams," "breaks," or "hummocks," and the number they can
squeeze in upon a single hill is positively astonishing. Quoting Mr.
Isaac B. Potter:
"Side ditches are necessary because the thousands of tons of
water which fall upon every mile of country road each year,
in the form of rain or snow, should be carried away to some
neighboring creek or other water channel as fast as the rain
falls and the snow melts, so as to prevent its forming mud
and destroying the surface of the road. When the ground is
frozen and a heavy rain or sudden thaw occurs, the side
ditch is the only means of getting rid of the surface water;
for no matter how sandy or porous the soil may be, when
filled with frost it is practically water-tight, and the
water which falls or forms on the surface must either remain
there or be carried away by surface ditches at the sides of
the road.
"A side ditch should have a gradually falling and even grade
at the bottom, and broad, flaring sides to prevent the
caving in of its banks. It can be easily cleared of snow,
weeds, and rubbish; the water will run into it easily from
each side, and it is not dangerous to wagons and foot
travelers. It is therefore a much better ditch than the
kind of ditch very often dug by erosion along the country
roadside."
Where the road is built on a grade some provision should be made to
prevent the wash of the gutters into great, deep gullies. This can be
done by paving the bottom and sides of the gutters with brick, river
rocks, or field stone. In order to make the flow in such side ditches as
small as possible it is advisable to construct outlets into the adjacent
fields or to lay underground pipes or tile drains with openings into the
ditches at frequent intervals.
The size of side ditches should depend upon the character of the soil
and the amount of water they are expected to carry. If possible they
should be located three feet from the edge of the traveled roadway, so
that if the latter is fourteen feet wide there will be twenty feet of
clear space between ditches.
The bottom of the ditch may vary in width from three to twelve inches,
or even more, as may be found necessary in order to carry the largest
amount of water which is expected to flow through it at any one time.
Sometimes the only ditches necessary to carry off the surface water are
those made by the use of the road machines or road graders. The blade of
the machine may be set at any desired angle, and when drawn along by
horses, cuts into the surface and moves the earth from the sides toward
the center, forming gutters alongside and distributing the earth
uniformly over the traveled way. Such gutters are liable to become
clogged by brush, weeds, and other débris, or destroyed by passing
wagons, and it is therefore better, when the space permits, to have the
side ditches above referred to, even if the road be built with a road
machine.
In order to have a good road it is just as necessary that water should
not be allowed to attack the substructure from below as that it should
not be permitted to percolate through it from above. Especially is the
former provision essential in cold climates, where, if water is allowed
to remain in the substructure, the whole roadway is liable to become
broken up and destroyed by frost and the wheels of vehicles. Therefore,
where the road runs through low wet lands or over certain kinds of
clayey soils, surface drainage is not all that is necessary. Common side
drains catch surface water and surface water only. Isaac Potter says:
"Many miles of road are on low, flat lands and on springy
soils, and thousands of miles of prairie roads are, for many
weeks in the year, laid on a wet subsoil. In all such cases,
and, indeed, in every case where the nature of the ground is
not such as to insure quick drainage, the road may be vastly
benefited by under drainage. An under drain clears the soil
of surplus water, dries it, warms it, and makes impossible
the formation of deep, heavy, frozen crusts, which are found
in every undrained road when the severe winter weather
follows the heavy fall rains. This crust causes nine-tenths
of the difficulties of travel in the time of sudden or
long-continued thaws.
"Roads constructed over wet undrained lands are always
difficult to manage and expensive to maintain, and they are
liable to be broken up in wet weather or after frosts. It
will be much cheaper in the long run to go to the expense
of making the drainage of the subjacent soil and
substructure as perfect as possible. There is scarcely an
earth road in the United States which cannot be so improved
by surface or subdrainage as to yield benefits to the
farmers a hundred times greater in value than the cost of
the drains themselves.
"Under drains are not expensive. On the contrary, they are
cheap and easily made, and if made in a substantial way and
according to the rules of common sense a good under drain
will last for ages. Use the best tools and materials you can
get; employ them as well as you know how, and wait results
with a clear conscience. Slim fagots of wood bound together
and laid lengthwise at the bottom of a carefully graded
drain ditch will answer fairly well if stone or drain tile
cannot be had, and will be of infinite benefit to a dirt
road laid on springy soils."
Subdrains should be carefully graded with a level at the bottom to a
depth of about four feet, and should have a continuous fall throughout
their entire length of at least six inches for each one hundred feet in
length. If tile drains cannot be had, large, flat stones may be
carefully placed so as to form a clear, open passage at the bottom for
the flow of the water. The ditch should then be half filled with rough
field stones, and on these a layer of smaller stones or gravel and a
layer of sod, hay, gravel, cinders, or straw, or, if none of these can
be had, of soil. If field stones or drain tile cannot be procured,
satisfactory results may be attained by the use of logs and brush.
If there be springs in the soil which might destroy the stability of the
road, they should, if possible, be tapped and the water carried under or
along the side until it can be turned away into some side channel. Such
drains may be made of bundles of brush, field stones, brick, or drain
tiles. They should be so protected by straw, sod, or brush as to prevent
the soil from washing in and clogging them.
Most of the roads in this country are of necessity constructed of earth,
while in a few of the richer and more enterprising communities the most
important thoroughfares are surfaced with gravel, shell, stones, or
other materials. Unless some new system for the improvement of public
roads is adopted, the inability of rural communities to raise funds for
this purpose will necessarily cause the construction of hard roads to be
very gradual for some time to come. Until this new system is adopted the
most important problem will be that of making the most of the roads
which exist, rather than building new ones of specially prepared
materials. The natural materials and the funds already available must be
used with skill and judgment in order to secure the best results. The
location, grades, and drainage having been treated in the preceding
pages, the next and most important consideration is that of constructing
and improving the various kinds of roads.
Of earth roads, as commonly built, it suffices to say that their present
conditions should not be tolerated in communities where there are any
other materials with which to improve them. Earth is the poorest of all
road materials, aside from sand, and earth roads require more attention
than any other kind of roads, and as a rule get less. At best, they
possess so many defects that they should have all the attention and care
of which their condition is susceptible. With earth alone, however, a
very passable road can be made, provided the principles of location,
drainage, and shape of surface, together with that of keeping the
surface as smooth and firm as possible by rolling, be strictly adhered
to. In fact a good earth road is second to none for summer travel and
superior to many of the so-called macadam or stone roads.
"Water is the great road destroyer," and too much attention cannot be
given to the surface and subdrainage of earth roads. The material of
which their surfaces are composed is more susceptible to the action of
water and more easily destroyed by it than any other highway material.
Drainage alone will often change a bad road into a good one, while on
the other hand the best road may be destroyed by the absence of good
drains.
The same can be said of rolling, which is a very important matter in
attempting to build or maintain a satisfactory earth road. If loose
earth is dumped into the middle of the road and consolidated by
traffic, the action of the narrow-tired wheels cuts it or rolls it into
uneven ruts and ridges, which hold water, and ultimately results, if in
the winter season, in a sticky, muddy surface, or if it be in dry
weather, in covering the surface with several inches of dust. If,
however, the surface be prepared with a road machine and properly rolled
with a heavy roller, it can usually be made sufficiently firm and smooth
to sustain the traffic without rutting, and resist the penetrating
action of the water. Every road is made smoother, harder, and better by
rolling. Such rolling should be done in damp weather, or if that is not
possible, the surface should be sprinkled if the character of the soil
requires such aid for its proper consolidation.
In constructing new earth roads all stumps, brush, vegetable matter,
rocks, and bowlders should be removed from the surface and the resulting
holes filled in with suitable material, carefully and thoroughly tamped
or rolled, before the road embankment is commenced. No perishable
material should be used in forming the permanent embankments. Where
possible the longitudinal grade should be kept down to one foot in
thirty feet, and should under no circumstances exceed one in twenty,
while that from center to sides should be maintained at one foot in
twenty feet.
Wherever the subgrade soil is found unsuitable it should be removed and
replaced with good material rolled to a bearing, _i.e._, so as to be
smooth and compact. The roadbed, having been brought to the required
grade and crown, should be rolled several times to compact the surface.
All inequalities discovered during the rolling should be leveled up and
rerolled. On the prepared subgrade, the earth should be spread, harrowed
if necessary, and then rolled to a bearing by passing the unballasted
road roller a number of times over every portion of the surface of the
section.
In level countries and with narrow roads, enough material may be
excavated to raise the roadway above the subgrade in forming the side
ditches by means of road machines. If not, the required earth should be
obtained by widening the side excavations, or from cuttings on the line
of the new roadway, or from pits close by, elevating graders and modern
dumping or spreading wagons being preferably used for this purpose. When
the earth is brought up to the final height, it is again harrowed, then
trimmed by means of road levelers or road machines and ultimately rolled
to a solid and smooth surface with road rollers gradually increased in
weight by the addition of ballast.
No filling should be brought up in layers exceeding nine inches in
depth. During the rolling, sprinkling should be attended to wherever the
character of the soil requires such aid. The cross section of the
roadway must be maintained during the last rolling stage by the addition
of earth as needed. On clay soils a layer of sand, gravel, or ashes
spread on the roadway will prevent the sticking of the clay to the
roller. As previously explained, the finishing touches to the road
surface should be given by a heavy roller.
Before the earth road is opened to traffic, deep and wide side ditches
should be constructed, with a fall throughout their entire length of at
least one in one hundred and twenty. They should be cleaned and left
with the drain tiling connections, if any, in good working order.
Clay soils, as a rule, absorb water quite freely and soften when
saturated, but water does not readily pass through them; hence they are
not easily subdrained. When used alone, clay is the least desirable of
all road materials, but roads constructed over clay soils may be treated
with sand or small gravel, from which a comparatively hard and compact
mass is formed which is nearly impervious to water. Material of this
character found in the natural state, commonly known as hardpan, makes,
when properly applied, a very solid and durable surface. In soil
composed of a mixture of sand, gravel, and clay, all that is necessary
to make a good road of its kind is to "crown" the surface, keep the ruts
and hollows filled, and the ditches open and free.
[Illustration: Sand Clay Road in Richland County, South Carolina
[_Sand soil with nine inches of clay and two inches cover of sand_]]
Roads are prone to wear in ruts, and when hollows and ruts begin to make
their appearance on the surface of an earth road great care should be
used in selecting new material, with which they should be immediately
filled, because a hole which could have been filled at first with a
shovel full of material would soon need a cart full. It should, if
possible, be of a gravelly nature, entirely free from vegetable earth,
muck, or mold. Sod or turf should not be placed on the surface, neither
should the surface be renewed by throwing upon it the worn-out material
from the gutters alongside. The last injunction, if rightly observed and
the proper remedy applied, would doubtless put an end to the deplorable
condition of thousands of miles of earth roads in the United States.
A road-maker should not go to the other extreme and fill up ruts and
holes with stone or large gravel. In many cases it would be wiser to
dump such material in the river. These stones do not wear uniformly with
the rest of the material, but produce bumps and ridges, and in nearly
every case result in making two holes instead of one. Every hole or rut
in a roadway, if not tamped full of some good material like that of
which the road is constructed, will become filled with water, and
finally with mud and water, and will be dug deeper and wider by each
passing vehicle.
The work of maintaining earth roads will be much increased by lack of
care in properly finishing the work. The labor and money spent in
rolling a newly-made road may save many times that amount of labor and
money in making future repairs. After the material has been placed it
should not be left for the traffic to consolidate, or for the rains to
wash off into the ditches, but should be carefully formed and surfaced,
and then, if possible, rolled. The rolling not only consolidates the
material, but puts the roadbed in proper shape for travel immediately.
If there is anything more trying on man or beast than to travel over an
unimproved road, it must be to travel over one which has just been
"worked" by the antiquated methods now in vogue in many of the states.
The traveled way should never be repaired by the use of plows or scoops.
The plow breaks up the compact surface which age and traffic have made
tolerable. Earth roads can be rapidly repaired by a judicious use of
road machines and road rollers. The road machine places the material
where it is most needed, and the roller compacts and keeps it there.
The labor-saving machinery now manufactured for road-building is just as
effectual and necessary as the modern mower, self-binder, and thrasher.
Road graders and rollers are the modern inventions necessary to
permanent and economical construction. Two men with two teams can build
more road in one day with a grader and roller than fifty men can with
picks and shovels, and do it more uniformly and more thoroughly.
Doubtless the best way to keep an earth road, or any road, for that
matter, in repair is by the use of wide tires on all wagons carrying
heavy burdens. Water and narrow tires aid each other in destroying
streets, macadam, gravel, and earth roads. Narrow tires are also among
the most destructive agents to the fields, pastures, and meadows of
farms, while on the other hand wide tires are road-makers; they roll and
harden the surface, and every loaded wagon becomes in effect a road
roller. Nothing so much tends to the improving of a road as the
continued rolling of its surface.
Tests recently made at the experiment stations in Utah and Missouri show
that wide tires not only improve the surface of roads, but that under
ordinary circumstances less power is required to pull a wagon on which
wide tires are used. The introduction in recent years of a wide metallic
tire which can be placed on any narrow-tired wheel at the cost of two
dollars each, has removed one very serious objection to the proposed
substitution of broad tires for the narrow ones now in use.
Repairs on earth roads should be attended to particularly in the spring
of the year, but the great mistake of letting all the repairs go until
that time should rot be made. The great want of the country road is
daily care, and the sooner we do away with the system of "working out"
our road taxes, and pay such taxes in money, the sooner will it be
possible to build improved roads and to hire experts to keep them
constantly in good repair. Roads could then secure attention when such
attention is most needed. If they are repaired only annually or
semiannually they are seldom in good condition but when they are given
daily or weekly care they are almost always in good condition, and,
moreover, the second method costs far less than the first. A portion of
all levy tax money raised for road purposes should be used in buying
improved road machinery, and in constructing each year a few miles of
improved stone or gravel roads.
The only exceptions to the instructions given on road drainage are found
in the attempt to improve a sand road. The more one improves the
drainage of a sand road the more deplorable becomes its condition.
Nothing will ruin one quicker than to dig a ditch on each side and drain
all the water away. The best way to make such a road firm is to keep it
constantly damp. Very bushy or shady trees alongside such roads prevent
the evaporation of water.
The usual way of mending roads which run over loose sandy soils is to
cover the surface with tough clay or mix the clay and sand together.
This is quite an expensive treatment if the clay has to be transported a
great distance, but the expense may be reduced by improving only eight
or ten feet or half of the roadway.
Any strong, fibrous substance, and especially one which holds moisture,
such as the refuse of sugar cane or sorghum, and even common straw,
flax, or swamp grass, will be useful. Spent tan is of some service, and
wood fiber in any form is excellent. The best is the fibrous sawdust
made in sawing shingles by those machines which cut lengthwise of the
fiber into the side of the block. Sawdust is first spread on the road
from eight to ten inches deep, and this is covered with sand to protect
the road against fire lighted from pipes or cigars carelessly thrown or
emptied on the roadbed. The sand also keeps the sawdust damp. The dust
and sand soon become hard and packed, and the wheels of the heaviest
wagons make but little impression upon the surface. The roadbed appears
to be almost as solid as a plank road, but is much easier for the teams.
The road prepared in this manner will remain good for four or five years
and will then require renewing in some parts. The ordinary lumber
sawdust would not be so good, of course, but if mixed with planer
shavings might serve fairly well.
Roads built of poles or logs laid across the roadway are called corduroy
roads, because of their corrugated or ribbed appearance. Like earth
roads, they should never be built where it is possible to secure any
other good material; but, as is frequently the case in swampy, timbered
regions, other material is unavailable, and as the road would be
absolutely impassable without them at certain seasons of the year, it is
well to know how to make them. Roads of this character should be fifteen
or sixteen feet wide, so as to enable wagons to pass each other. Logs
are superior to poles for this purpose and should be used if possible.
The following in regard to the construction of corduroy roads is from
Gilmore's _Roads, Streets, and Pavements_:
"The logs are all cut the same length, which should be that of the
required width of the road, and in laying them down such care in
selection should be exercised as will give the smallest joints or
openings between them. In order to reduce as much as possible the
resistance to draft and the violence of the repeated shocks to which
vehicles are subjected upon these roads, and also to render its surface
practicable for draft animals, it is customary to level up between the
logs with smaller pieces of the same length but split to a triangular
cross section. These are inserted with edges downward in the open
joints, so as to bring their surface even with the upper sides of the
large logs, or as nearly so as practicable.
"Upon the bed thus prepared a layer of brushwood is put, with a few
inches in thickness, with soil or turf on top to keep it in place. This
completes the road. The logs are laid directly upon the natural surface
of the soil, those of the same or nearly of the same diameter being kept
together, and the top covering of soil is excavated from side ditches.
"Cross drains may usually be omitted in roads of this kind, as the
openings between the logs, even when laid with utmost care, will furnish
more than ample water way for drainage from the ditch on the upper to
that on the lower side of the road. When the passage of a creek of
considerable volume is to be provided for, and in localities subject to
freshets, cross drains or culverts are made wherever necessary by the
omission of two or more logs, the openings being bridged with planks,
split rails, or poles laid transversely to the axis of the road and
resting on cross beams notched into the logs on either side."
The essential requirement of a good road is that it should be firm and
unyielding at all times and in all kinds of weather, so that its surface
may be smooth and impervious to water. Earth roads at best fulfil none
of these requirements, unless they be covered with some artificial
material. On a well-made gravel road one horse can draw twice as large a
load as he can on a well-made earth road. On a hard smooth stone road
one horse can pull as much as four horses will on a good earth road. If
larger loads can be hauled and better time made on good hard roads than
on good earth ones, the area and the number of people benefited are
increased in direct proportion to the improvement of their surface.
Moreover, it is evident that a farm four or five miles from the market
or shipping point located on or near a hard road is virtually nearer the
market than one situated only two or three miles away, but located on a
soft and yielding road. Hard roads are divided here into three
classes--gravel, shell, and stone.
Although it is impracticable, and in many cases impossible, for
communities to build good stone roads, a surface of gravel may
frequently be used to advantage, giving far better results than could be
attained by the use of earth alone. Where beds of good gravel are
available this is the simplest, cheapest, and most effective method of
improving country roads.
[Illustration: GRAVEL ROAD NEAR SOLDIERS' HOME, DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA]
In connection with the building and maintenance of gravel roads the most
important matter to consider is that of selecting the proper material. A
small proportion of argillaceous sand, clayey, or earthy matter
contained in some gravel enables it to pack readily and consolidate
under traffic or the road roller. Seaside and river gravel, which is
composed usually of rounded, waterworn pebbles, is unfit for surfacing
roads. The small stones of which they are composed, having no angular
projections or sharp edges, easily move or slide against each other, and
will not bind together, and even when mixed with clay may turn
freely, causing the whole surface to be loose, like materials in a
shaken sieve.
Inferior qualities of gravel can sometimes be used for foundations; but
where it becomes necessary to employ such material even for that purpose
it is well to mix just enough sandy or clayey loam to bind it firmly
together. For the wearing surface or the top layer the pebbles should,
if possible, be comparatively clean, hard, angular, and tough, so that
they will readily consolidate and will not be easily pulverized by the
impact of traffic, into dust and mud. They should be coarse, varying in
size from half an inch to an inch and one-half.
Where blue gravel or hardpan and clean bank gravel are procurable, a
good road may be made by mixing the two together. Pit gravel or gravel
dug from the earth as a rule contains too much earthy matter. This may,
however, be removed by sifting. For this purpose two sieves are
necessary, through which the gravel should be thrown. The meshes of one
sieve should be one and one-half or two inches in diameter, while the
meshes of the other should be three-fourths of an inch. All pebbles
which will not go through the one and one-half inch meshes should be
rejected or broken so that they will go through. All material which
sifts through the three-fourths inch meshes should be rejected for the
road, but may be used in making side paths. The excellent road which can
be built from materials prepared in this way is so far superior to the
one made of the natural clayey material that the expense and trouble of
sifting is many times repaid.
The best gravel for road-building stands perpendicular in the bank; that
is, when the pit has been opened up the remainder stands compact and
firm and cannot be dislodged except by use of the pick, and when it
gives way falls in great chunks or solid masses. Such material usually
contains tough angular gravel with just enough cementing properties to
enable it to readily pack and consolidate, and requires no further
treatment than to place it properly on the prepared roadbed.
Some earth roads may be greatly improved by covering the surface with a
layer of three or four inches of gravel, and sometimes even a thinner
layer may prove of very great benefit if kept in proper repair. The
subsoil of such roadway ought, however, to be well drained, or of a
light and porous nature. Roads constructed over clay soils require a
layer of at least six inches of gravel. The gravel must be deep enough
to prevent the weight of traffic forcing the surface material into weak
places in the clay beneath, and also to prevent the surface water from
percolating through and softening the clay and causing the whole roadway
to be torn up.
Owing to a lack of knowledge regarding construction, indifference, or
carelessness in building or improving, roads made of gravel are often
very much worse than they ought to be. Some of them are made by simply
dumping the material into ruts, mud holes, or gutter-like depressions,
or on unimproved foundation, and are left thus for traffic to
consolidate, while others are made by covering the surface with inferior
material without any attention being paid to the fundamental principles
of drainage. As a result of such thoughtless and haphazard methods the
road usually becomes rougher and more completely covered with holes than
before.
In constructing a gravel road the roadbed should first be brought to the
proper grade. Ordinarily an excavation is then made to the depth of
eight to ten inches, varying in width with the requirements of traffic.
For a farm or farming community the width need not be greater than ten
or twelve feet. A roadway which is too wide is not only useless, but the
extra width is a positive damage. Any width beyond that needed for the
traffic is not only a waste of money in constructing the road, but is
the cause of a never-ending expense in maintaining it. The surface of
the roadbed should preferably have a fall from the center to the sides
the same as that to be given the finished road, and should, if possible,
be thoroughly rolled and consolidated until perfectly smooth and firm.
A layer, not thicker than four inches, of good gravel, such as that
recommended above, should then be spread evenly over the prepared
roadbed. Such material is usually carried upon a road in wheelbarrows or
dump carts, and then spread in even layers with rakes, but the latest
and best device for this purpose is a spreading cart.
If a roller cannot be had, the road is thrown open to traffic until it
becomes fairly well consolidated; but it is impossible properly to
consolidate materials by the movement of vehicles over the road, and if
this means is pursued constant watchfulness is necessary to prevent
unequal wear and to keep the surface smooth and free from ruts. The work
may be hastened and facilitated by the use of a horse roller or light
steam roller; and of course far better results can be accomplished by
this means. If the gravel be too dry to consolidate easily it should be
kept moist by sprinkling. It should not, however, be made too wet, as
any earthy or clayey matter in the gravel is liable to be dissolved.
As soon as the first layer has been properly consolidated, a second,
third, and, if necessary, fourth layer, each three or four inches in
thickness, is spread on and treated in the same manner, until the road
is built up to the required thickness and cross section. The thickness
in most cases need not be greater than ten or twelve inches, and the
fall from the center to the sides ought not to be greater than one foot
in twenty feet, or less than one in twenty-five.
The last or surface layer should be rolled until the wheels of heavily
loaded vehicles passing over it make no visible impression. If the top
layer is deficient in binding material and will not properly
consolidate, a thin layer, not exceeding one inch in thickness, of sand
or gravelly loam or clay, should be evenly spread on and slightly
sprinkled if in dry weather, before the rolling is begun. Hardpan or
stone screenings are much preferred for this purpose if they can be had.
The tendency of material to spread under the roller and work toward the
sides can be resisted by rolling that portion nearest the gutters first.
To give the surface the required form and to secure uniform density, it
is necessary at times to employ men with rakes to fill any depressions
which may form.
In order to maintain a gravel road in good condition, it is well to keep
piles of gravel alongside at frequent intervals, so that the person who
repairs the road can get the material without going too far for it. As
soon as ruts or holes appear on the surface some of this good fresh
material should be added and tamped into position or kept raked smooth
until properly consolidated.
If the surface needs replenishing or rounding up, as is frequently the
case with new roads after considerable wear, the material should be
applied in sections or patches, raked and rolled until hard and smooth.
Care must be taken that the water from higher places does not drain upon
or run across the road. The side ditches, culverts, and drains should be
kept open and free from débris.
In many of the Eastern and Southern States road stones do not exist;
neither is it possible to secure good coarse gravel. No such material
can be secured except at such an expense for freight as to practically
preclude its use for road-building. Oyster shells can be secured
cheaply in most of these states, and when applied directly upon sand or
sandy soil, eight or ten inches in thickness, they form excellent roads
for pleasure driving and light traffic. Shells wear much more rapidly
than broken stone or gravel of good quality, and consequently roads made
of them require more constant attention to keep them in good order. In
most cases they should have an entirely new surface every three or four
years. When properly maintained they possess many of the qualities found
in good stone or gravel roads, and so far as beauty is concerned they
cannot be surpassed.
The greatest obstacles to good stone road construction in most places in
the United States are the existing methods of building and systems of
management, whereby millions of dollars are annually wasted in improper
construction or in making trifling repairs on temporary structures.
[Illustration: OYSTER-SHELL OBJECT-LESSON ROAD
[_In course of construction, near Mobile, Alabama_]]
The practice of using too soft, too brittle, or rotten material on roads
cannot be too severely condemned. Some people seem to think that if a
stone quarries easily, breaks easily, and packs readily, it is the
very best stone for road-building. This practice, together with that of
placing the material on unimproved foundations and leaving it thus for
traffic to consolidate, has done a great deal to destroy the confidence
of many people in stone roads. There is no reason in the world why a
road should not last for ages if it is built of good material and kept
in proper repair. If this is not done, the money spent is more than
wasted. It is more economical, as a rule, to bring good materials a long
distance by rail or water than to employ inferior ones procured close at
hand.
The durability of roads depends largely upon the power of the materials
of which they are composed to resist those natural and artificial forces
which are constantly acting to destroy them. The fragments of which they
are constructed are liable to be attacked in cold climates by frost, and
in all climates by water and wind. If composed of stone or gravel, the
particles are constantly grinding against each other and being exposed
to the impact of the tires of vehicles and the feet of animals.
Atmospheric agencies are also at work decomposing and disintegrating
the material. It is obviously necessary, therefore, that great care be
exercised in selecting for the surfacing of roads those stones which are
less liable to be destroyed or decomposed by these physical, dynamical,
and chemical forces.
Siliceous materials, those composed of flint or quartz, although hard,
are brittle and deficient in toughness. Granite is not desirable because
it is composed of three materials of different natures, viz., quartz,
feldspar, and mica, the first of which is brittle, the second liable to
decompose rapidly, and the third laminable or of a scaly or layerlike
nature. Some granites which contain hornblende instead of feldspar are
desirable. The darker the variety the better. Gneiss, which is composed
of quartz, feldspar, and mica, more or less distinctly slaty, is
inferior to granite. Mica-slate stones are altogether useless. The
argillaceous slates or clayey slates make a smooth surface, but one
which is easily destroyed when wet. The sandstones are utterly useless
for road-building. The tougher limestones are very good, but the softer
ones, though they bind and make a smooth surface very quickly, are too
weak for heavy loads; they wear, wash, and blow away very rapidly.
The materials employed for surfacing roads should be both hard and
tough, and should possess by all means cementing and recementing
qualities. For the Southern States, where there are no frosts to contend
with, the best qualities of limestone are considered quite satisfactory
so far as the cementing and recementing qualities are concerned; but in
most cases roads of this class of material do not stand the wear and
tear of traffic like those built of trap rock, and when exposed to the
severe northern winters such material disintegrates very rapidly. In
fact, trap rock, "nigger heads," technically known as diabase, and
diorites, are considered by most road engineers of long experience to be
the very best stones for road-building. Trap rocks as a rule possess all
the qualities most desired for road stones. They are hard and tough, and
when properly broken to small sizes and rolled thoroughly, cement and
consolidate into a smooth, hard crust which is impervious to water, and
the broken particles are so heavy that they are not readily broken or
washed away.
Unfortunately the most useful stones for road-building are the most
difficult to prepare, and as trap rocks are harder to break than any
other stones they usually cost more. The foundation or lower courses may
be formed of some of the softer stones like gneiss or limestone, but
trap rock should be used for the wearing surface, if possible, even if
it has to be brought from a distance.
As to the construction of macadam roads, Mr. Potter says:
"In the construction of a macadam road in any given locality, the
question of economy generally compels us to use a material found near at
hand, and where a local quarry does not exist field stone and stone
gathered from the beds of rivers and small streams may often be made to
serve every purpose. Many of the stones and boulders thus obtained are
of trap rock, and in general it may be said that all hard field and
river stones, if broken to a proper size, will make fairly good and
sometimes very excellent road metal. No elaborate test is required to
determine the hardness of any given specimen. A steel hammer in the
hands of an intelligent workman will reveal in a general way the
relative degree of toughness of two or more pieces of rock. Field and
river stone offer an additional advantage in that they are quickly
handled, are generally of convenient size, and are more readily broken
either by hand or by machine than most varieties of rock which are
quarried in the usual way.
"It is a simple task to break stone for macadam roadways, and by the aid
of modern inventions it can be done cheaply and quickly. Hand-broken
stone is fairly out of date and is rarely used in America where any
considerable amount of work is to be undertaken. Stone may be broken by
hand at different points along the roadside where repairs are needed
from time to time, but the extra cost of production by this method
forbids its being carried on where extended work is undertaken.
Hand-broken stone is generally more uniform in size, more nearly cubical
in shape, and has sharper angles than that broken by machinery, but the
latter, when properly assorted or screened, has been found to meet every
requirement.
"A good crusher driven by eight horsepower will turn out from forty to
eighty cubic yards of two-inch stone per day of ten hours, and will cost
from four hundred dollars upward, according to quality.
"Some crushers are made either stationary, semistationary, or portable,
according to the needs of the purchaser, and for country-road work it is
sometimes very desirable to have a portable crusher to facilitate its
easy transfer from one part of the township to another. The same
portable engine that is used in thrashing, sawing wood, and other
operations requiring the use of steam power may be used in running a
stone crusher, but it is best to remember that a crusher will do its
best and most economical work when run by a machine having a horsepower
somewhat in excess of the power actually required.
"As the stone comes from the breaker the pieces will be found to show a
considerable variety in size, and by many practical road-makers it is
regarded as best that these sizes should be assorted and separated,
since each has its particular use. To do this work by hand would be
troublesome and expensive, and screens are generally employed for that
purpose. Screens are not absolutely necessary, and many road-makers do
not use them; but they insure uniformity in size of pieces, and
uniformity means in many cases superior wear, smoothness, and economy.
Most of the screens in common use today are of the rotary kind. In
operating they are generally so arranged that the product of the crusher
falls directly into the rotary screen, which revolves on an inclined
axis and empties the separate pieces into small bins below the crusher.
A better form for many purposes includes a larger and more elaborate
outfit, in which the stone is carried by an elevator to the screen and
by the screen emptied into separate bins according to the respective
sizes. From the bins it is easily loaded into wagons or spreading carts
and hauled to any desired point along the line of the road.
"The size to which stone should be broken depends upon the quality of
the stone, the amount of traffic to which the road will be subjected,
and to some extent upon the manner in which the stone is put in place.
If a hard, tough stone is employed it may be broken into rough cubes or
pieces of about one and a half inches in largest face dimensions, and
when broken to such a size the product of the crusher may generally be
used to good advantage without the trouble of screening, since dust
'tailings' and fine stuff do not accumulate in large quantities in the
breaking of the tougher stone.
"If only moderate traffic is to be provided for, the harder limestones
may be broken so the pieces will pass through a two-inch ring, though
sizes running from two and a quarter to two and a half inches will
insure a more durable roadway, and if a steam roller is used in
compacting the metal it will be brought to a smooth surface without much
trouble. As a rule, it may be said that to adhere closely to a size
running from two and a quarter to two and a half inches in largest face
dimensions, and to use care in excluding too large a proportion of
small stuff as well as all pieces of excessive size, will insure a
satisfactory and durable macadam road."
Macadam insisted that no large stone should ever be employed in
road-making, and, indeed, most modern road builders practice his
principle that "small angular fragments are the cardinal requirements."
As a general rule it has been stated that no stone larger than a walnut
should be used for the surfacing of roads.
Stone roads are built in most cases according to the principles laid
down by John L. Macadam, while some are built by the methods advocated
by Telford. The most important difference between these two principles
of construction relates to the propriety or necessity of a paved
foundation beneath the crust of broken stone. Telford advocated this
principle, while Macadam strongly denied its advantages.
In building roads very few iron-clad rules can be laid down for
universal application; skill and judgment must be exercised in designing
and building each road so that it will best meet the requirements of the
place it is to occupy. The relative value of the telford and macadam
systems can most always be determined by the local circumstances,
conditions, and necessities under which the road is to be built. The
former system seems to have the advantage in swampy, wet places, or
where the soil is in strata varying in hardness, or where the foundation
is liable to get soft in spots. Under most other circumstances
experienced road builders prefer the macadam construction, not only
because it is considered best, but also because it is much cheaper.
The macadam road consists of a mass of angular fragments of rock
deposited usually in layers upon the roadbed or prepared foundation and
consolidated to a smooth, hard surface produced by the passage of
vehicles or by use of a road roller. The thickness of this crust varies
with the soil, the nature of the stone used, and the amount of traffic
which the road is expected to have. It should be so thick that the
greatest load will not affect the foundation. The weight usually comes
upon a very small part of the surface, but is spread over a large area
of the foundation, and the thicker the crust the more uniformly will
the load be distributed over the foundation.
Macadam earnestly advocated the principle that all artificial
road-building depended wholly for its success upon the making and
maintaining of a solid dry foundation and the covering of this
foundation with a durable waterproof coating or roof of broken stone.
The foundation must be solid and firm; if it be otherwise the crust is
useless. A road builder should always remember that without a durable
foundation there is no durable road. Hundreds of miles of macadam roads
are built in the United States each year on unimproved or unstable
foundations and almost as many miles go to pieces for this same reason.
Says Macadam:
"The stone is employed to form a secure, smooth, water-tight flooring,
over which vehicles may pass with safety and expedition at all seasons
of the year. Its thickness should be regulated only by the quality of
the material necessary to form such a flooring and not at all by any
consideration as to its own independent power of bearing weight.... The
erroneous idea that the evils of an underdrained, wet, clayey soil can
be remedied by a large quantity of materials has caused a large part of
the costly and unsuccessful expenditures in making stone roads."
The evils from improper construction of stone roads are even greater
than those resulting from the use of improper material. Macadam never
intended that a heterogeneous conglomeration of stones and mud should be
called a macadam road. The mistake is often made of depositing broken
stone on an old road without first preparing a suitable foundation. The
result, in most cases, is that the dirt and mud prevent the stone from
packing and by the action of traffic ooze to the surface, while the
stones sink deeper and deeper, leaving the road as bad as before.
Another great mistake is often made of spreading large and small stones
over a well-graded and well-drained foundation and leaving them thus for
traffic to consolidate. The surface of a road left in this manner is
often kept in constant turmoil by the larger stones, which work
themselves to the surface and are knocked hither and thither by the
wheels of vehicles and the feet of animals. These plans of construction
cannot be too severely condemned.
The roadbed should be first graded, then carefully surface-drained. The
earth should then be excavated to the depth to which material is to be
spread on and the foundation properly shaped and sloped each way from
the center so as to discharge any water which may percolate through.
This curvature should conform to the curvature of the finished road. A
shouldering of firm earth or gravel should be left or made on each side
to hold the material in place, and should extend to the gutters at the
same curvature as the finished road. The foundation should then be
rolled until hard and smooth.
Upon this bed spread a layer of five or six inches of broken stone,
which stone should be free from any earthy mixture. This layer should be
thoroughly rolled until compact and firm. Stone may be hauled from the
stone-crusher bins or from the stone piles in ordinary wheelbarrows or
from wagons, and should be distributed broadcast over the surface with
shovels, and all inequalities leveled up by the use of rakes. If this
method of spreading is employed, grade stakes should be used so as to
insure a uniformity of thickness. After the stakes are driven the height
of the layer is marked on their sides, and if thought necessary a piece
of stout cord is stretched from stake to stake, showing the exact height
to which the layer should be spread. Spreading carts have been recently
invented which not only place the stone where it is needed without the
use of shovels, but spread it on in layers of any desired thickness and
at the same time several inches wider than the carts themselves.
If the stones have been separated into two or three different sizes, the
largest size should compose the bottom layer, the next size the second
layer, etc. The surface of each course or layer should be thoroughly and
repeatedly rolled and sprinkled until it becomes firm, compact, and
smooth. The first layer, however, should not be sprinkled, as the water
is liable to soften the foundation. The rolling ought to be done along
the side lines first, gradually working toward the center as the job is
being completed. In rolling the last course it is well to begin by
rolling first the shoulderings or the side roads if such exist.
A coat of three-quarter inch stone and screenings, of sufficient
thickness to make a smooth and uniform surface, should compose the last
course, and, like the other layers, should be rolled until perfectly
firm and smooth. As a final test of perfection, a small stone placed on
the surface will be crushed before being driven into the material.
If none of the stones used be larger than will pass through a two-inch
ring, they can be spread on in layers as above described without
separating them by screens. Water and binding material--stone screenings
or good packing gravel--can be added if found necessary for proper
consolidation. Earth or clay should never be used for a binding
material. Enough water should be sprinkled on to wash in and fill all
voids between the broken stones with binding material and to leave such
material damp enough to insure a set.
If a road is built of tough, hard stone, and if the binding material has
the same characteristics, a steam roller is essential for speedy
results. A horse roller may be used to good advantage if the softer
varieties of stone are employed. For general purposes a roller weighing
from eight to twelve tons is all that is necessary. Heavier weights are
difficult to handle upon unimproved surfaces unless they be constructed
like the Addison roller, the weight of which can be increased or
lightened at will by filling the drum with water or drawing the water
out. This roller can be made to weigh as much as eight tons and, like
several other very excellent ones now on the market, is provided with
anti-friction roller bearings, which lighten the draft considerably.
Every stone road, unless properly built with small stones and just
enough binding material to fill the voids, presents a honeycombed
appearance. In fact, a measure containing two cubic feet of broken stone
will hold in addition one cubic foot of water, and a cubic yard of
broken macadam will weigh just about one-half as much as a solid cubic
yard of the same kind of stone. Isaac Potter says:
"To insure a solid roadway and to fill the large proportion of voids or
interstices between the different pieces of broken stone, some finer
material must be introduced into the structure of the roadway, and this
material is usually called a binder, or by some road-makers a 'filler.'
"There used to be much contention regarding the use of binding material
in the making of a macadam road, but it is now conceded by nearly all
practical and experienced road-makers, both in Europe and America, that
the use of a binding material is essential to the proper construction of
a good macadam road. It adds to its solidity, insures tightness by
closing all of the spaces between the loose, irregular stones, and binds
together the macadam crust in a way that gives it firmness, elasticity,
and durability."
Binding material to produce the best results should be equal in hardness
and toughness with the road stone; the best results are therefore
obtained by using screenings or spalls from the broken stone used.
Coarse sand and gravel can sometimes be used with impunity as a binder,
but the wisdom of using loam or clay is very much questioned. When the
latter material is used for a binder the road is apt to become very
dusty in dry weather, and sticky, muddy, and rutty in wet weather.
The character of the foundation should never take the place of proper
drainage. The advisability of underground or subdrainage should always
be carefully considered where the road is liable to be attacked from
beneath by water. In most cases good subdrains will so dry the
foundation out that the macadam construction can be resorted to.
Sometimes, however, thorough drainage is difficult or doubtful, and in
such cases it is desirable to adopt some heavy construction like the
telford; and, furthermore, the difficulty of procuring perfectly solid
and reliable roadbeds in many places is often overcome by the use of
this system.
In making a telford road the surface for the foundation is prepared in
the same manner as for a macadam road. A layer of broken stone is then
placed on the roadbed from five to eight inches in depth, depending upon
the thickness to be given the finished road. As a rule this foundation
should form about two-thirds of the total thickness of the material. The
stone used for the first layer may vary in thickness from two to four
inches and in length from eight to twelve inches. The thickness of the
upper edges of the stones should not exceed four inches. They are set by
hand on their broadest edges lengthwise across the road, breaking joints
as much as possible. All projecting points are then broken off and the
interstices or cracks filled with stone chips, and the whole structure
wedged and consolidated into a solid and complete pavement. Upon this
pavement layers of broken stones are spread and treated in the same way
as for a macadam road.
Stone roads should be frequently scraped, so as to remove all dust and
mud. Nothing destroys a stone road quicker than dust or mud. The hand
method of scraping with a hoe is considered best. No matter how
carefully adjusted the machinery built for this purpose may be, it is
liable to ravel a road by loosening some of the stones. The gutters and
surface drains should be kept open, so that all water falling upon the
road or on the adjacent ground may promptly flow away. Says Spalding, a
road authority:
"If the road metal be of soft material which wears easily, it will
require constant supervision and small repairs whenever a rut or
depression may appear. Material of this kind binds readily with new
material that may be added, and may in this manner frequently be kept in
good condition without great difficulty, while if not attended to at
once when wear begins to show it will very rapidly increase, to the
great detriment of the road. In making repairs by this method the
material is commonly placed a little at a time and compacted by passing
vehicles. The material used for this purpose should be the same as that
of the road surface and not fine material, which would soon reduce to
powder under the loads which come upon it. By careful attention to
minute repairs in this manner a surface may be kept in good condition
until it wears so thin as to require renewal.
"In case the road be of harder material, that will not so readily
combine when a thin coating is added, repairs may not be frequent, as
the surface will not wear so rapidly, and immediate attention is not so
important. It is usually more satisfactory in this case to make more
extensive repairs at one time, as a larger quantity of material added at
once may be more readily compacted to a uniform surface, the repairs
taking the form of an additional layer upon the road.
"Where the material of the road surface is very hard and durable, a
well-constructed road may wear quite evenly and require hardly any
attention, beyond ordinary small repairs, until worn out. It is now
usually considered the best practice to leave such a road to itself
until it wears very thin, and then renew it by an entirely new layer of
broken stone placed on the worn surface and without in any way
disturbing that surface.
"If a thin layer only of material is to be added at one time, in order
that it may unite firmly with the upper layer of the road, it is usually
necessary to break the bond of the surface material before placing the
new layer, either by picking it up by hand or by a steam roller with
short spikes in its surface, if such a machine is at hand. Care should
be taken in doing this, however, that only the surface layer be loosened
and that the solidity of the body of the road be not disturbed, as might
be the case if the spikes are too long."
In repairing roads the time-honored custom of waiting until the road has
lost its shape or until the surface has become filled with holes or ruts
should never be tolerated. Much good material is wasted by spreading a
thick coat over such a road and leaving it thus for passing vehicles to
consolidate. The material necessary to replace defects in a road should
be added when the necessities arise and should be of the best quality
and the smallest possible quantity. If properly laid in small patches
the inconvenience to traffic will be scarcely perceptible. If such
repairs are made in damp weather, as they ought to be, little or no
difficulty is experienced in getting a layer of stone to consolidate
properly. If mud fills the rut or hole to be repaired, it should be
carefully removed before the material is placed.
Wide tires should be used on all heavy vehicles which traverse stone
roads. A four or five inch stone or gravel road will last longer without
repair when wide tires are used than an eight or ten inch road of the
same material on which narrow tires are used.
Not only should brush and weeds be removed from the roadside, but grass
should be sown, trees planted, and a side path or walk be prepared for
the use of pedestrians, especially women and children, going to and
coming from church, school, and places of business and amusement.
Country roads can be made far more useful and attractive than they
usually are, and this may be secured by the expenditure of only a small
amount of labor and money. Although such improvements are not necessary,
they make the surroundings attractive and inviting and add to the value
of property and the pleasure of the traveler.
If trees are planted alongside the road they should be far enough back
to admit the wind and sun. Most strong growing trees are apt to extend
their roots under the gutters and even beneath the roadway if they are
planted too close to the roadside. Even if they be planted at a safe
distance those varieties should be selected which send their roots
downward rather than horizontally. The most useful and beautiful tree
corresponding with these requirements is the chestnut, while certain
varieties of the pear, cherry, and mulberry answer the same purpose.
Where there is no danger of roots damaging the subdrainage or the
substructure of the road, some other favorite varieties would be elms,
rock maples, horse-chestnuts, beeches, pines, and cedars. Climate,
variety of species selected, and good judgment will determine the
distance between such trees. Elms should be thirty feet apart, while the
less spreading varieties need not be so far. The trunks should be
trimmed to a considerable height, so as to admit the sun and air. Fruit
trees are planted along the roadsides in Germany and Switzerland, while
mulberry trees may be seen along the roads in France, serving the
twofold purpose of food for silkworms and shade. If some of our many
varieties of useful, fruitful, and beautiful trees were planted along
the roads in this country, and if some means could be devised for
protecting the product, enough revenue could be derived therefrom to pay
for the maintenance of the road along which they throw their grateful
shade.
The improvement of country roads is chiefly an economical question,
relating principally to the waste of effort in hauling over bad roads,
the saving in money, time, and energy in hauling over good ones, the
initial cost of improving roads, and the difference in the cost of
maintaining good and bad ones. It is not necessary to enlarge on this
subject in order to convince the average reader that good roads reduce
the resistance to traffic, and consequently the cost of transportation
of products and goods to and from farms and markets is reduced to a
minimum.
The initial cost of a road depends upon the cost of materials, labor,
machinery, the width and depth to which the material is to be spread
on, and the method of construction. All these things vary so much in the
different states that it is impossible to name the exact amount for
which a mile of a certain kind of road can be built.
The introduction in recent years of improved road-building machinery has
enabled the authorities in some of the states to build improved stone
and gravel roads quite cheaply. First-class single-track stone roads,
nine feet wide, have been built near Canandaigua, New York, for $900 to
$1,000 per mile. Many excellent gravel roads have been built in New
Jersey for $1,000 to $1,300 per mile. The material of which they were
constructed was placed on in two layers, each being raked and thoroughly
rolled, and the whole mass consolidated to a thickness of eight inches.
In the same state macadam roads have been built, for $2,000 to $5,000
per mile, varying in width from nine to twenty feet and in thickness of
material from four to twelve inches. Telford roads fourteen feet wide
and ten to twelve inches thick have been built in New Jersey for $4,000
to $6,000 per mile. Macadam roads have been built at Bridgeport and
Fairfield, Connecticut, eighteen to twenty feet wide, for $3,000 to
$5,000 per mile. A telford road sixteen feet wide and twelve inches
thick was built at Fanwood, New Jersey, for $9,500 per mile. Macadam
roads have been built in Rhode Island, sixteen to twenty feet wide, for
$4,000 to $5,000 per mile.
Massachusetts roads are costing all the way from $6,000 to $25,000 per
mile. A mile of broken stone road, fifteen feet wide, costs in the state
of Massachusetts about $5,700 per mile, while a mile of the same width
and kind of road costs in the state of New Jersey only $4,700. This is
due partly to the fact that the topography of Massachusetts is somewhat
rougher than that of New Jersey, necessitating the reduction of many
steep grades and the building of expensive retaining walls and bridges,
and partly to the difference in methods of construction and the
difference in prices of materials, labor, etc.
Doubtless the state of New Jersey is building more roads and better
roads for less money per mile than any other state in the Union. Its
roads are now costing from twenty to seventy cents per square yard.
Where the telford construction is used they sometimes cost as much as
seventy-three cents per square yard. The average cost of all classes of
the roads of that state during the last season was about fifty cents per
square yard. The stone was, as a rule, spread on to a depth of nine
inches, which, after rolling, gave a depth of about eight inches. At
this rate a single-track road eight feet wide costs about $2,346 per
mile, while a double-track road fourteen feet wide costs about $4,106
per mile, and one eighteen feet wide costs about $5,280 per mile. Where
the material is spread on so as to consolidate to a four-inch layer the
eight-foot road will cost about $1,173 per mile, the fourteen-foot road
about $2,053 per mile, while the one eighteen feet wide will cost about
$2,640 per mile.
[Illustration: EARTH AND MACADAM ROADS
[_Built by convict labor in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina_]]
The total cost of maintaining roads in good order ranges, on account of
varying conditions, between as wide limits almost as the initial cost of
construction. Suffice it to say that all money spent on repairing earth
roads becomes each year a total loss without materially improving
their condition. They are, as a rule, the most expensive roads that can
be used, while on the other hand stone roads, if properly constructed of
good material and kept in perfect condition, are the most satisfactory,
the cheapest, and most economical roads that can be constructed.
The road that will best suit the needs of the farmer, in the first
place, must not be too costly; and, in the second place, must be of the
very best kind, for farmers should be able to do their heavy hauling
over them when their fields are too wet to work and their teams would
otherwise be idle.
The best road for the farmer, all things being considered, is a solid,
well-built stone road, so narrow as to be only a single track, but
having a firm earth road on one or both sides. Where the traffic is not
very extensive the purposes of good roads are better served by narrow
tracks than by wide ones, while many of the objectionable features of
wide tracks are removed, the initial cost of construction is cut down
one-half or more, and the charges for repair reduced in proportion.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] By Hon. Maurice O. Eldridge, Assistant Director Office of Public
Road Inquiries.
CHAPTER IV
THE SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR MACADAM ROADS[7]
No one rock can be said to be a universally excellent road material. The
climatic conditions vary so much in different localities, and the volume
and character of traffic vary so much on different roads, that the
properties necessary to meet all the requirements can be found in no one
rock. If the best macadam road be desired, that material should be
selected which best meets the conditions of the particular road for
which it is intended.
The movement for better country roads which has received such an impetus
from the bicycle organizations is still felt, and is gaining force from
the rapid introduction of horseless vehicles. To this demand, which
comes in a large measure from the urban population, is to be added that
of the farmer, who is wakening to the fact that good roads greatly
increase the profits from his farm produce, and thus materially better
his condition; and to the farmer, indeed, we must look for any real
improvement in our country roads.
In considering the comparative values of different rocks for
road-building, it must be taken for granted in all cases that the road
is properly laid out, constructed, and maintained. For if this is not
the case, only inferior results can be expected, no matter how good the
material may be.
In most cases the selection of a material for road-making is determined
more by its cheapness and convenience of location than by any properties
it may possess. But when we consider the number of roads all over our
country which are bad from neglect and from obsolete methods of
maintenance that would be much improved by the use of any rock, this
regard for economy is not to be entirely deprecated. At the same time,
as a careless selection leads to costly and inferior results, too much
care cannot be used in selecting the proper material when good roads
are desired at the lowest cost. When macadam roads are first introduced
into a district they are at worst so far superior to the old earth roads
that the question is rarely asked, whether, if another material had been
used, better roads would not have been obtained, and this at a smaller
cost. When mistakes are made they are not generally discovered until
much time and money have been expended on inferior roads. Such errors
can in a great measure be avoided if reasonable care is taken in the
selection of a suitable material. To select a material in a haphazard
way, without considering the needs of the particular road on which it is
to be used, is not unlike an ill person taking the nearest medicine at
hand, without reference to the nature of the malady or the properties of
the drug. If a road is bad, the exact trouble must first be ascertained
before the proper remedy can be applied. If the surface of a macadam
road continues to be too muddy or dusty after the necessary drainage
precautions have been followed, then the rock of which it is constructed
lacks sufficient hardness or toughness to meet the traffic to which it
is subjected. If, on the contrary, the fine binding material of the
surface is carried off by wind and rain and is not replaced by the wear
of the coarser fragments, the surface stones will soon loosen and allow
water to make its way freely to the foundation and bring about the
destruction of the road. Such conditions are brought about by an excess
of hardness or toughness of the rock for the traffic. Under all
conditions a rock of high cementing value is desirable; for, other
things being equal, such a rock better resists the wear of traffic and
the action of wind and rain. This subject, however, will be referred to
again.
Until comparatively recent years but little was known of the relative
values of the different varieties of rock as road material, and good
results were obtained more by chance and general observation than
through any special knowledge of the subject. These conditions, however,
do not obtain at present, for the subject has received a great deal of
careful study, and a fairly accurate estimate can be made of the
fitness of a rock for any conditions of climate and traffic.
In road-building the attempt should be made to get a perfectly smooth
surface, not too hard, too slippery, or too noisy, and as free as
possible from mud and dust, and these results are to be attained and
maintained as cheaply as possible. Such results, however, can only be
had by selecting the material and methods of construction best suited to
the conditions.
In selecting a road material it is well to consider the agencies of
destruction to roads that have to be met. Among the most important are
the wearing action of wheels and horses' feet, frost, rain, and wind. To
find materials that can best withstand these agencies under all
conditions is the great problem that confronts the road-builder.
Before going further, it will be well to consider some of the physical
properties of rock which are important in road-building, for the value
of a road material is dependent in a large measure on the degree to
which it possesses these properties. There are many such properties that
affect road-building, but only three need be mentioned here. They are
hardness, toughness, and cementing or binding power.
By hardness is meant the power possessed by a rock to resist the wearing
action caused by the abrasion of wheels and horses' feet. Toughness, as
understood by road-builders, is the adhesion between the crystal and
fine particles of a rock, which gives it power to resist fracture when
subjected to the blows of traffic. This important property, while
distinct from hardness, is yet intimately associated with it, and can in
a measure make up for a deficiency in hardness. Hardness, for instance,
would be the resistance offered by a rock to the grinding of an emery
wheel; toughness, the resistance to fracture when struck with a hammer.
Cementing or binding power is the property possessed by the dust of a
rock to act, after wetting, as a cement to the coarser fragments
composing the road, binding them together and forming a smooth,
impervious shell over the surface. Such a shell, formed by a rock of
high cementing value, protects the underlying material from wear and
acts as a cushion to the blows from horses' feet, and at the same time
resists the waste of material caused by wind and rain, and preserves the
foundation by shedding the surface water. Binding power is thus,
probably, the most important property to be sought for in a
road-building rock, as its presence is always necessary for the best
results. The hardness and toughness of the binder surface more than of
the rock itself represents the hardness and toughness of the road, for
if the weight of traffic is sufficient to destroy the bond of
cementation of the surface, the stones below are soon loosened and
forced out of place. When there is an absence of binding material, which
often occurs when the rock is too hard for the traffic to which it is
subjected, the road soon loosens or ravels.
Experience shows that a rock possessing all three of the properties
mentioned in a high degree does not under all conditions make a good
road material; on the contrary, under certain conditions it may be
altogether unsuitable. As an illustration of this, if a country road or
city park way, where only a light traffic prevails, were built of a
very hard and tough rock with a high cementing value, neither the best,
nor, if a softer rock were available, would the cheapest results be
obtained. Such a rock would so effectively resist the wear of a light
traffic that the amount of fine dust worn off would be carried away by
wind and rain faster than it would be supplied by wear. Consequently the
binder supplied by wear would be insufficient, and if not supplied from
some other source the road would soon go to pieces. The first cost of
such a rock would in most instances be greater than that of a softer one
and the necessary repairs resulting from its use would also be very
expensive.
A very good illustration of this point is the first road built by the
Massachusetts Highway Commission. This road is on the island of
Nantucket and was subjected to a very light traffic. The commission
desired to build the best possible road, and consequently ordered a very
hard and tough trap rock from Salem, considered then to be the best
macadam rock in the state. Delivered on the road this rock cost $3.50
per ton, the excessive price being due to the cost of transportation.
The road was in every way properly constructed, and thoroughly rolled
with a steam roller; but in spite of every precaution it soon began to
ravel, and repeated rolling was only of temporary benefit, for the rock
was too hard and tough for the traffic. Subsequently, when the road was
resurfaced with limestone, which was much softer than the trap, it
became excellent. Since then all roads built on the island have been
constructed of native granite bowlders with good results, and at a much
lower cost.
If, however, this hard and tough rock, which gave such poor results at
Nantucket, were used on a road where the traffic was sufficient to wear
off an ample supply of binder, very much better results would be
obtained than if a rock lacking both hardness and toughness were used;
for, in the latter case, the wear would be so great that ruts would be
formed which would prevent rain water draining from the surface. The
water thus collecting on the surface would soon make its way to the
foundation and destroy the road. The dust in dry weather would also be
excessive.
Only two examples of the misuse of a road material have been given, but,
as they represent extreme conditions, it is easy to see the large number
of intermediate mistakes that can be made, for there are few rocks even
of the same variety that possess the same physical properties in a like
degree. The climatic and physical conditions to which roads are
subjected are equally varied. The excellence of a road material may,
therefore, be said to depend entirely on the conditions which it is
intended to meet.
It may be well to mention a few other properties of rock that bear on
road-building, though they will not be discussed here. There are some
rocks, such as limestones, that are hygroscopic, or possess the power of
absorbing moisture from the air, and in dry climates such rocks are
distinctly valuable, as the cementation of rock dust is in a large
measure dependent for its full development on the presence of water. The
degree to which a rock absorbs water may also be important, for in cold
climates this to some extent determines the liability of a rock to
fracture by freezing. It is not so important, however, as the
absorptive power of the road itself, for if a road holds much water the
destruction wrought by frost is very great. This trouble is generally
due to faulty construction rather than to the material. The density or
weight of a rock is also considered of importance, as the heavier the
rock the better it stays in place and the better it resists the action
of wind and rain.
Only a few of the properties of rock important to road builders have
been considered, but if these are borne in mind when a material is to be
selected better results are sure to be obtained. In selecting a road
material the conditions to which it is to be subjected should first be
considered. These are principally the annual rainfall, the average
winter temperature, the character of prevailing winds, the grades, and
the volume and character of the traffic that is to pass over the road.
The climatic conditions are readily obtained from the Weather Bureau,
and a satisfactory record of the volume and character of the traffic can
be made by any competent person living in view of the road.
In France the measuring of traffic has received a great deal of
attention, and a census is kept for all the national highways. The
traffic there is rated and reduced to units in the following manner: A
horse hauling a public vehicle or cart loaded with produce or
merchandise is considered as the unit of traffic. Each horse hauling an
empty cart or private carriage counts as one-half unit; each horse, cow,
or ox, unharnessed, and each saddle horse, one-fifth unit; each small
animal (sheep, goat, or hog), one-thirtieth unit.
A record is made of the traffic every thirteenth day throughout the
year, and an average taken to determine its mean amount. Some such
general method of classifying traffic in units is desirable, as it
permits the traffic of a road to be expressed in one number.
Before this French method can be applied to the traffic of our country
it will be necessary to modify considerably the mode of rating. This,
however, is a matter which can be studied and properly adjusted by the
Office of Public Road Inquiries. It is most important to obtain a record
of the average number of horses and vehicles and kind of vehicles that
pass over an earth road in a day before the macadam road is built. The
small cost of such a record is trifling when compared with the cost of a
macadam road (from $4,000 to $10,000 per mile for a fifteen-foot road),
in view of the fact that an error in the selection of material may cost
a much larger sum of money. After a record of the traffic is obtained,
if the road is to be built of crushed rock for the first time, an
allowance for an immediate increase in traffic amounting at least to ten
or fifteen per cent had best be made, for the improved road generally
brings traffic from adjoining roads.
To simplify the matter somewhat, the different classes of traffic to
which roads are subjected may be divided into five groups, which may be
called city, urban, suburban, highway, and country road traffic,
respectively. City traffic is a traffic so great that no macadam road
can withstand it, and is such as exists on the business streets of large
cities. For such a traffic stone and wood blocks, asphalt, brick, or
some such materials are necessary. Urban traffic is such as exists on
city streets which are not subjected to continuous heavy teaming, but
which have to withstand very heavy wear, and need the hardest and
toughest macadam rock. Suburban traffic is such as is common in the
suburbs of a city and the main streets of country towns. Highway traffic
is a traffic equal to that of the main country roads. Country road
traffic is a traffic equal to that of the less frequented country roads.
The city traffic will not be considered here. For an urban traffic, the
hardest and toughest rock, or in other words, a rock of the highest
wearing quality that can be found, is best. For a suburban traffic the
best rock would be one of high toughness but of less hardness than one
for urban traffic. For highway traffic a rock of medium hardness and
toughness is best. For country road traffic it is best to use a
comparatively soft rock of medium toughness. In all cases high cementing
value should be sought, and especially if the locality is very wet or
windy.
Rocks belonging to the same species and having the same name, such as
traps, granites, quartzites, etc., vary almost as much in different
localities in their physical road-building properties as they do from
rocks of distinct species. This variation is also true of the mineral
composition of rocks of the same species, as well as in the size and
arrangement of their crystals. It is impossible, therefore, to classify
rocks for road-building by simply giving their specific names. It can be
said, however, that certain species of rock possess in common some
road-building properties. For instance, the trap[8] rocks as a class are
hard and tough and usually have binding power, and consequently stand
heavy traffic well; and for this reason they are frequently spoken of as
the best rocks for road-building. This, however, is not always true, for
numerous examples can be shown where trap rock having the above
properties in the highest degree has failed to give good results on
light traffic roads. The reason trap rock has gained so much favor with
road-builders is because a large majority of macadam roads in our
country are built to stand an urban traffic, and the traps stand such a
traffic better than any other single class of rocks. There are, however,
other rocks that will stand an urban traffic perfectly well, and there
are traps that are not sufficiently hard and tough for a suburban or
highway traffic. The granites are generally brittle, and many of them do
not bind well, but there are a great many which when used under proper
conditions make excellent roads. The felsites are usually very hard and
brittle, and many have excellent binding power, some varieties being
suitable for the heaviest macadam traffic. Limestones generally bind
well, are soft, and frequently hygroscopic. Quartzites are almost always
very hard, brittle, and have very low binding power. The slates are
usually soft, brittle, and lack binding power.
The above generalizations are of necessity vague, and for practical
purposes are of little value, since rocks of the same variety occurring
in different localities have very wide ranges of character. It
consequently happens in many cases, particularly where there are a
number of rocks to choose from, that the difficulty of making the best
selection is great, and this difficulty is constantly increasing with
the rapidly growing facilities of transportation and the increased range
of choice which this permits. On account of their desirable road
properties some rocks are now shipped several hundred miles for use.
There are but two ways in which the value of a rock as a road material
can be accurately determined. One way, and beyond all doubt the surest,
is to build sample roads of all the rocks available in a locality, to
measure the traffic and wear to which they are subjected, and keep an
accurate account of the cost both of construction and annual repairs for
each. By this method actual results are obtained, but it has grave and
obvious disadvantages. It is very costly (especially so when the results
are negative), and it requires so great a lapse of time before results
are obtained that it cannot be considered a practical method when
macadam roads are first being built in a locality. Further than this,
results thus obtained are not applicable to other roads and materials.
Such a method, while excellent in its results, can only be adopted by
communities which can afford the necessary time and money, and is
entirely inadequate for general use.
The other method is to make laboratory tests of the physical properties
of available rocks in a locality, study the conditions obtaining on the
particular road that is to be built, and then select the material that
best suits the conditions. This method has the advantages of giving
speedy results and of being inexpensive, and as far as the results of
laboratory tests have been compared with the results of actual practice
they have been found to agree.
Laboratory tests on road materials were first adopted in France about
thirty years ago, and their usefulness has been thoroughly established.
The tests for rock there are to determine its degree of hardness,
resistance to abrasion, and resistance to compression. In 1893 the
Massachusetts Highway Commission established a laboratory at Harvard
University for testing road materials. The French abrasion test was
adopted, and tests for determining the cementing power and toughness of
rock were added. Since then similar laboratories have been established
at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Wisconsin Geological
Survey, Cornell University, and the University of California.
The Department of Agriculture has now established a road-material
laboratory in the Division of Chemistry, where any person residing in
the United States may have road materials tested free by applying for
instructions to the Office of Public Road Inquiries. The laboratory is
equipped with the apparatus necessary for carrying on such work, and the
Department intends to carry on general investigations on roads. Part of
the general plan will be to make tests on actual roads for the purpose
of comparing the results with those obtained in the laboratory.
Besides testing road materials for the public, blank forms for recording
traffic will be supplied by the department to any one intending to
build a road. When these forms are filled and returned to the
laboratory, together with the samples of materials available for
building the road, the traffic of the road will be rated in its proper
group, as described above; each property of the materials will be tested
and similarly rated according to its degree, the climatic conditions
will be considered, and expert advice given as to the proper choice to
be made.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] By Logan Waller Page, expert in charge of Road Material Laboratory,
Division of Chemistry.
[8] This term is derived from the Swedish word _trappa_, meaning steps,
and was originally applied to the crystallized basalts of the coast of
Sweden, which much resemble steps in appearance. As now used by road
builders, it embraces a large variety of igneous rocks, chiefly those of
fine crystalline structure and of dark-blue, gray, and green colors.
They are generally diabases, diorites, trachytes, and basalts.--PAGE.
CHAPTER V
STONE ROADS IN NEW JERSEY[9]
As New Jersey contains a great variety of soils, there are many
conditions to be met with in road construction. The northern part of the
state is hilly, where we have clay, soft stone, hard stones, loose
stones, quicksand, and marshes. In the eastern part of the state,
particularly in the seashore sections, the roads are at their worst in
summer in consequence of loose, dry sand, which sometimes drifts like
snow. In west New Jersey, which comprises the southern end of the state,
there is much loose, soft sand, considerable clay, marshes, and low
lands not easily drained.
In addition to the condition of the soil, there is the economic
condition to be considered. In the vicinity of large towns or cities,
where there is heavy carting by reason of manufactories and produce
marketing, it is necessary to have heavy, thick, substantial roads,
while in more rural districts and along the seashore, where the travel
is principally by light carriages, a lighter roadbed construction is
preferred. In rural districts, where the roads are used for immediate
neighborhood purposes, an inexpensive road is desirable. The main
thoroughfares have to be constructed with a view to considerable
increase of travel, as farmers in the outlying districts who formerly
devoted their time to grazing of stock, raising of grain, etc., find it
more profitable to change the mode of farming to that of truck raising,
fruit growing, etc.
The road engineers of New Jersey find that they cannot follow old paths
and make their roads after one style or pattern. Technical engineering
in road construction must yield to the practical, common-sense plan of
action. An engineer with plenty of money and material at hand can
construct a good road almost anywhere and meet any condition, but with
limited resources and a variety of physical conditions he has to "cut
the garment to suit the cloth." We start out with this dilemma. We must
have better roads, and our means for getting them being very limited, if
we cannot get them as good as we would like, let us get them as good as
we can.
Let me give a practical illustration. Stone-road construction outside of
turnpike corporations in West Jersey was begun in the spring of 1891. I
was called on by the township committee of Chester Township, Burlington
County, to construct some roads. Moorestown is a thriving town of about
three thousand inhabitants in the center of the township. The roads to
be constructed, with one exception, ran out of the town to the township
limits, being from one-half to three miles in length. The roads were
generally for local purposes. There were ten roads, aggregating about
eleven miles. The bonding of the township was voted upon, and it was
necessary, in order to carry the bonding project of $40,000, to have all
these roads constructed of stone macadam. The roads to be improved were
determined on at a town meeting without consulting an engineer as to the
cost, etc., so that the plain question submitted to me was, Can you
construct eleven miles of stone road nine feet wide for $40,000? The
conditions to be met were these: There was no stone suitable for
road-building nearer than from sixty to eighty miles; cost of freight,
about seventy-five cents per ton; the hauls from the railroad siding
averaged about one and three-quarter miles; price of teams in summer,
when farmers were busy, about $3.50 per day. In preparation for road
construction there were several hills to be cut from one to three feet;
causeways and embankments to be made over wet and swampy ground. For
this latter work the property holders and others interested along the
road agreed to furnish teams, the township paying for laborers. The next
difficulty was the kind of a road to build. As the width was fixed at
nine feet as a part of the conditions for bonding, there seemed only one
way left to apply the economics--that was, in the depth of the roads.
On the dry, sandy soils I put the macadam six inches deep; this depth
was applied to about six miles of road. On roads where the heaviest
travel would come the roadbed was made eight inches deep. On soils
having springs and on embankments over causeways the depth was ten
inches with stone foundation, known as telford. Where springs existed,
they were cut off by underdrains.
It had been the practice of engineers in their specifications to call
for the best trap rock for all the stone construction. As this rock is
hard to crush and difficult to be transported some seventy or eighty
miles to this part of New Jersey, I found that in order to construct all
of the road from this best material it would take more money than the
bonds would provide; so I had half of the depth which forms the
foundation made of good dry sedimentary rock. Of course, in this there
is considerable slate, but the breaking is not nearly so costly as the
breaking of syenite or Jersey trap rock, and there was a saving of
thirty per cent. As the surface of the road had to take all the wear, I
required the best trap rock for this purpose.
Since the construction of these roads in Chester Township, roads are now
built under the state-aid act by county officials and paid for as
follows: One-third by the state, ten per cent by the adjoining property
holders, and the balance (56-2/3 per cent) by the county. The roads
constructed under this act are generally leading roads and those mostly
traversed by heavy teams. They are constructed similarly to those in
Chester Township, excepting that they are generally twelve feet wide and
from ten to twelve inches deep. Many of them have a telford foundation,
which is now put down at about the same price as macadam, and meets most
of the conditions better than macadam. The less expensive stone is used
for foundations, and the best and more costly for surface only. In this
way the cost of construction has been greatly reduced.
In regard to the width, a road nine or ten feet wide has been found to
be quite as serviceable as one of greater width, unless it is made
fourteen feet and over. It is not claimed that a narrow road is just as
good as a wide road, but it has been found better to have the cost in
length than in width in rural districts. In and near towns, where there
is almost constant passing, the road should not be less than from
fourteen to twenty feet in width. The difficulty in getting on and off
the stone road where teams are passing is not so great as is supposed.
To meet this difficulty in the past, on each side of the road the
specifications require the contractor to make a shoulder of clay,
gravel, or other hard earth; this is never less than three feet and
sometimes six to eight feet in width, according to the kinds of soil the
road is composed of and the liability of frequent meeting and passing.
In rural districts the top-dressing of these shoulders is taken from the
side ditches; grass sods are mixed in when found, and in some cases
grass seed is sown. As the stone roadbed takes the travel the grass soon
begins to grow, receiving considerable fertilizing material from the
washing of the road; and when the sod is once formed the waste material
from the wear of the road is lodged in the grass sod and the shoulder
becomes hard and firm, except when the frost is coming out.
Another mode of building a rural road cheaply and still have room for
passing without getting off the stone construction is to make the
roadbed proper about ten feet wide, ten or twelve inches deep; then have
wings of macadam on each side three feet wide and five or six inches
deep. In case ten feet is used the two wings would make the stone
construction six feet wide. If the road is made considerably higher in
the center than the sides, as it should be, the travel, particularly the
loaded teams, will keep in the center, and the wings will only be used
in passing and should last as long as the thicker part of the road.
The preparation of the road and making it suitable for the stone bed is
one of the most important parts of road construction. This, once done
properly, is permanent. Wherever it is possible the hills should be cut
and low places filled, so that the maximum grade will not exceed five or
six feet rise in one hundred feet; where hills cannot be reduced to this
grade without incurring too much expense, the hill, if possible, should
be avoided by relaying the road in another place.
Wherever stone roads have been constructed it has been found that those
using them for drawing heavy loads will increase the capacity of their
wagons so as to carry three or four times the load formerly carried.
This can easily be done where the road has a maximum grade of not
greater than five or six per cent, as before stated; but when the grade
is greater than this the power to be expended on such loads upon such
grades will exhaust and wear out the horses; thus a supposed saving in
heavy loading may prove to be a loss.
In the preparation of the road it is necessary to have the ditches wide
and deep enough to carry all the water to the nearest natural water way.
These ditches should at all times be kept clear of weeds and trash, so
that the water will not be retained in pools. Bad roads often occur
because this important matter is overlooked.
On hills the slope or side grade in construction from center of road to
side ditches should be increased so as to exceed that of the
longitudinal grade; that is, if the latter is, say, five per cent, the
slope to side should be at least six per cent and over.
Where the road in rural districts is on rolling ground and hills do not
exceed three or four per cent, it is an unnecessary expense to cut the
small ones, but all short rises should be cut and small depressions
filled. A rolling road is not objectionable, and besides there is no
better roadbed for laying on metal than the hard crust formed by
ordinary travel. In putting on the metal, particularly on narrow roads,
the roadbed should be "set high;" it will soon get "flat enough." It is
better to put the shouldering up to the stone than to dig a trench to
put the stone in. If the road after preparation is about level from side
to side and the stone or metal construction is to be, say, ten inches
deep, the sides of the roadbed to receive the metal should be cut about
three inches and placed on the side to help form the shoulder; the rest
of the shoulder, when suitable, being taken from the ditches and sides
in forming the proper slope. The foundation to receive the metal, if the
natural roadbed is not used and the bed is of soft earth, should be
rolled until it is hard and compact. It should also conform to the same
slope as the road when finished from center to sides. If the bed or
foundation is of soft sand rolling will be of little use. In this case
care must be taken to keep the bed as uniform as possible while the
stone is being placed on the foundation.
When the road passes through villages and towns the grading should
reduce the roadbed to a grade as nearly level as possible. It must be
borne in mind that the side ditches need not necessarily always conform
to the center grade of the road. When the center grade is level the side
ditches should be graded to carry off the water. In some cases I have
found it necessary to run the grade for the side ditches in an opposite
direction from the grade of the road. This, however, does not often
occur. The main thing is to get the water off the road as soon as
possible after it falls, and then not allow it to remain in the ditches.
And just here the engineer will meet with many difficulties. The
landowners in rural districts are opposed to having the water from the
roads let onto their lands, and disputes often arise as to where the
natural water way is located. This should be determined by the people
in the neighborhood, or by the local authorities. I have found in
several cases, where the water from side ditches was allowed to run on
the land, that the land was generally benefited by having the soil
enriched by the fertilizing matter from the road.
After the roadbed has been thoroughly prepared, if made of loam or clay,
it should be rolled and made as hard and compact as possible. Wherever a
depression appears it should be filled up and made uniformly hard. Place
upon it a light coat of loam or fine clay, which will act as a binder.
If the roller used is not too heavy it may be rolled to advantage, but
the rolling of this course depends upon the character of the stones. If
the stones are cubical in form rolling is beneficial, but if they are of
shale and many of them thin and flat, rolling has a tendency to bring
the flat sides to the surface. When this is the case the next course of
fine stone for the surface will not firmly compact and unite with them.
When the foundation is of telford it is important that stones not too
large should be used. They should not exceed ten inches in length, six
inches on one side, which is laid next to the earth, and four inches on
top, the depth depending on the thickness of the road. If the thickness
of the finished road is eight inches, the telford pavement should not
exceed five inches; if it is ten or more inches deep, then the telford
could be six inches. It need in no case be greater than this, as this is
sufficient to form the base or foundation of the metal construction. The
surface of the telford pavement should be as uniform as possible, all
projecting points broken off, and interstices filled in with small
stone. Care should be taken to keep the stone set up perpendicular with
the roadbed and set lengthwise across the road with joints broken. This
foundation should be well hammered down with sledge hammers and made
hard and compact. Upon this feature greatly depends the smoothness of
the surface of the road and uniform wear. If put down compactly rolling
is not necessary, and if not put down solid rolling might do it damage
in causing the large stones to lean and set on their edges instead of on
the flat sides. I refer to instances where the road is to be ten inches
and over. Then put on a light coat or course of one and one-half inch
stone, with a light coat of binding, and then put on the roller, thus
setting the finer stone well with the foundation and compacting the
whole mass together.
After the macadam or telford foundation is well laid and compacted, the
surface or wearing stone is put on. If the thickness of the road is
great enough, say twelve or fourteen inches, this surface stone should
be put on in courses, say of three and four inches, as may be required
for the determined thickness of the road. On each course there should be
applied a binding, but only sufficient to bind the metal together or
fill up the small interstices. It must be remembered that broken stone
is used in order to form a compact mass. The sides of the stone should
come together and not be kept apart by what we call binding material;
therefore only such quantity should be used as will fill up the small
interstices made by reason of the irregularity of the stone. Each course
should be thoroughly rolled to get the metal as compact as possible.
When the stone construction is made to the required depth or thickness,
the whole surface should be subjected to a coat of screenings about one
inch thick. This must be kept damp by sprinkling, and thoroughly rolled
until the whole mass becomes consolidated and the surface smooth and
uniform. Before the rolling is finished the shoulders should be made up
and covered with gravel or other hard earth and dressed off to the side
ditches. When practicable these should have the same grade or slope as
the stone construction. This finish should also be rolled and made
uniform, so that, in order that the water may pass off freely, there
will be no obstruction between the stone roadbed and side ditches. To
prevent washes and insure as much hardness as possible on roads in rural
districts, grass should be encouraged to grow so as to make a stiff sod.
For shouldering, when the natural soil is of soft sand, a stiff clay is
desirable. When the natural soil is of clay, then gravel or coarse sand
can be used, covering the whole with the ditch scrapings or other
fertilizing material, where grass sod is desirable. Of course this is
not desirable in villages and towns.
For binding, what is called garden loam is the best. When this cannot be
found use any soft clay or earth free from clods or round stones. It
must be spread on very lightly and uniformly.
Any good dry stone not liable to disintegrate can be used as metal for
foundation for either telford or macadam construction. For the surface
it is necessary to have the best stone obtainable. Like the edge of a
tool, it does the service and must take the wear. As in the tool it pays
to have the best of steel, so on the road, which is subject to the wear
and tear of steel horseshoes and heavy iron tires, it is found the
cheapest to have the best of stone.
It is difficult to describe the kind of stone that is best. The best is
generally syenite trap rock, but this term does not give any definite
idea. The kind used in New Jersey is called the general name of Jersey
trap rock. It is a gray syenite, and is found in great quantities in a
range running from Jersey City, on the Hudson River, to a point on the
Delaware between Trenton and Lambertville. There are quantities of good
stone lying north of this ledge, but none south of it.
The best is at or near Jersey City. The same kind of stone is found in
the same ranges of hills in Pennsylvania, but in the general run it is
not so good. The liability to softness and disintegration increases
after leaving the eastern part of New Jersey, and while good stone may
be found, the veins of poorer stone increase as we go south and west.
It is generally believed that the hardest stones are best for road
purposes, but this is not the case. The hard quartz will crush under the
wheels of a heavy load. It is toughness in the stone that is necessary;
therefore a mixed stone, like syenite, is the best. This wears smooth,
as the rough edges of the stone come in contact with the wheels. It
requires good judgment based on experience to determine the right kind
of stone to take the constant wear of horseshoes and wagon tires.
If good roads are desired, the work is not done when the road is
completed and ready for travel. There are many causes which make
repairing necessary. I will refer to only a few of them. Stone roads are
liable to get out of order because of too much water or want of water;
also, when the natural roadbed is soft and springy and has not been
sufficiently drained; when water is allowed to stand in ditches and form
pools along the road, and when the "open winters" give us a
superabundance of wet. Before the road becomes thoroughly consolidated
by travel it is liable to become soft and stones get loose and move
under the wheels of the heavily loaded wagons. In the earth foundation
on which the stone bed rests the water finds the soft spots. The wheels
of the loaded teams form ruts, and particularly where narrow tires are
used.
The work of repair should begin as soon as defects appear, for, if
neglected, after every rain the depressions make little pools of water
and hold it like a basin. In every case this water softens the material,
and the wagon tires and horseshoes churn up the bottoms of the basins.
This is the beginning of the work of destruction. If allowed to go on,
the road becomes rough, and the wear and tear of the horses and wagons
are increased. Stone roads out of repair, like any common road in
similar condition, will be found expensive to those who use and maintain
them. The way to do is to look over a road after a rain, when the
depressions and basins will show themselves. Whenever one is large
enough to receive a shovelful of broken stone, scrape out the soft dirt
and let it form a ring around the depression. Fill with broken stone to
about an inch or two above the surface of the road. The ring of dirt
around will keep the stone above the surface in place, and the passing
wheels will work it on the broken stone and also act as a binder. The
whole will work down and become compact and even with the road surface.
The ruts are treated in the same way. Use one and one-half inch stone
for this; smaller stones will soon grind up and the hole appear again.
The second cause of the necessity for road repairs is want of water.
This occurs in summer during hot, dry spells. The surface stone
"unravels;" that is, becomes loose where the horses travel. This
condition is more liable to be found on dry, sandy soils, and where the
roadbed is subject to the direct rays of the sun, and where the winds
sweep off all the binding material from the surface. In clay soil there
is little or no trouble from "unraveling." The cause being found, the
remedy is applied in this way: Put on water with the sprinkler before
all the binding material is blown off. If the hot, dry weather
continues, sprinkling should continue. Do this in the evening or late in
the afternoon.
The next mode is to repair the road by placing the material back as it
was originally. The loose stones are placed in the depressions and good
binding material--garden loam or fine clay--is put on, then roll the
whole repeatedly and dampen by sprinkling as needed until the whole
surface becomes smooth and hard. Care must be taken that too much
binding material is not used. If too much is used it will injure the
road in winter when there is an excess of water.
When a road has been neglected and allowed to become uneven and rough,
or is by constant use worn down to the foundation stones, there should
be a general repairing. In the first place, if it is the roughness and
unevenness that is the only defect, this may be remedied by the use of a
large, heavy roller with steel spikes in its rolling wheels. This will
puncture the surface so that an ordinary harrow will tear up the surface
stones. Then take the spikes out of the roller wheels, and, with
sprinkling and rolling, the roadbed can be repaired and made like a new
road. But if the cause of the roughness is from wearing away of the
stone, so that the surface of the road is brought down to or near the
foundation, then the road needs resurfacing. The mode of treatment is
the same as in the other case.
In districts where there is stone suitable for road construction the
county, town, township, or other municipality, proposing to construct
stone roads, should own a stone quarry and a stone crusher. For grading
and preparing the road for construction, dressing up sides, clearing out
side ditches, etc., a good road machine is necessary. For constructing
roads and repairing them a roller is necessary, the weight depending
upon the kind of road constructed. If the road is not wide a roller of
from four to six tons is all the weight necessary. The rolling should be
continued until compactness is obtained. For wide, heavy roads a steam
roller of fifteen tons can be used to advantage. A sprinkling wagon
completes the list that is necessary for the county or town or other
municipality constructing its own roads.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] By E. G. Harrison, C. E., Secretary New Jersey Road Improvement
Association.
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