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Remarks on the Present System of Road Making: With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the EvidenceMcAdam, John Loudon

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Remarks on the Present System of Road Making: With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the Evidence

Name: Remarks on the Present System of Road Making: With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the Evidence
Author: McAdam, John Loudon

McAdam, John Loudon

Macadam roads; Roads -- Great Britain

water to pass from the centre towards the sides of the road, the
declivity may increase towards the sides, and the general section form a
very flat ellipsis, so that the side, at the time, should (upon a road
of about thirty feet in width) be nine inches below the surface in the
middle. Connected with the cross section are the side drains which are
to receive the water, and which drains, in every instance, I
particularly recommend to be on the field side of the fence, with
apertures in that fence for the water to pass from the sides of the road
into them.

The fences themselves on each side form a very material and important
subject, with regard to the perfection of roads; they should in no
instance be more than five feet in height above the centre of the road,
and all trees which stand within twenty yards from the centre of it
ought to be removed. I am sure that twenty per cent. of the expense of
improving and repairing roads is incurred by the improper state of the
fences and trees along the sides of it, on the sunny side more
particularly; this must be evident to any person who will notice the
state of a road which is much shaded by high fences and trees, compared
to the other parts of the road which are exposed to the sun and air. My
observations, with regard to fences and trees, apply when the road is on
the same level as the adjacent fields; but in many cases, on the most
frequented roads of England, more stuff has been removed from time to
time than was put on; the surface of the road is consequently sunk into
a trough or channel from three to six feet below the surface of the
fields on each side; here all attempts at drainage, or even common
repairs, seem to be quite out of the question; and by much the most
judicious and economical mode will be to remove the whole road into the
field which is on the sunny side of it. In cases where a road is made
upon ground where there are many springs, it is absolutely necessary to
make a number of under and cross drains to collect the water and conduct
it into the aforesaid side-drains, which I have recommended to be made
on the field side of the fences.

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