The Future of Road-making in AmericaHulbert, Archer Butler
History
The Future of Road-making in America
Hulbert, Archer Butler
Roads; Roads -- United States; Roads -- United States -- Design and construction
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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