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
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.
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