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
McAdam, John Loudon
Macadam roads; Roads -- Great Britain
In what state of the road are you in the habit of laying on fresh
materials?—I prefer laying on materials immediately after the road has
had a scraping, in consequence of there being upon the surface of the
road a small quantity of dirty matter and broken gravel, which then form
a sort of cement for the gravel to fix in.
You consider it advantageous to lay on the materials when the road is
wet?—I do, because the gravel adheres closer.
Considering the very great traffic upon the Whitechapel road, is it your
opinion that it would be advantageous to pave any part of that road?—I
think it would be desirable to pave it, within some feet of the footpath
more particularly.
What breadth from the sides of that road would you consider it desirable
to have paved?—About eleven or twelve feet from the footpath.
You would consider it a desirable plan to pave the sides of that road in
preference to the centre?—Certainly.
For what reasons?—If the centre was paved, the light carriages would be
very much annoyed; when the gravel road was good on the sides, the heavy
carriages would go there, and the light carriages would be driven on the
stones from the sides again; if the centre was paved the carters would
be obliged to walk on that road to manage their horses, and would be
considerably annoyed by carriages, horsemen, &c. passing: but if the
sides of that road were paved, the carters would be enabled to walk on
the footpath and to manage their horses without annoyance.
What is the shape of road which, from your experience, you would give
the preference to?—I would have the road barrelled, and made so as that
it would convey off the water in the severe weather in winter, when the
roads are generally bad.
Which do you give the preference to, a road with a flat surface, or one
that gradually declines from the centre?—I think a road which gradually
declines from the centre is by far the most preferable, decidedly so.
What is the degree of the declivity or fall which you would recommend as
the most desirable?—I have paid particular attention to the Whitechapel
road, where it is of the width of 55 feet, and the fall from the centre
to the sides is 12 inches; but to attain this shape, when the road is
worn down, when first covered with gravel, there should be a fall not
exceeding from 16 to 18 inches from the centre to the sides. [_The
witness delivered in a cross section of the road._]
Is it your opinion that any parliamentary regulation with regard to
stage coaches is necessary for preventing injury to the road?—None.
You think it desirable that they should remain as at present?—Yes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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