Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1914 — ROADS AND ROAD MAKING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROADS AND ROAD MAKING

COSTLY NEW YORK PAVEMENTS Greater Number Are Asphalt -and Call for Frequent Repair. The first asphalt pavement was put down in Washington in 1878, and a year later New York tried one short block of it It was not until 1888 that any great amount of the then new pavement was laid, but for the past ten years New York has spent more than $2,000,000 for asphalt alone. The wood block pavement was tried in Chicago as far back as 1878, and the experiment attracted considerable Interest. Although at the present time asphalt pavements are probably the most common in use, there are places where the bltullthic. the wooden, or granite block or brick should instead be chosen without a moment's hesitation. At present the subject is an extremely broad one, upon which a great deal of technical writing has been done. To say that it pays for a city to have good paving is merely an axiom. At present the question is rather what good pavement is. And the answer to this varies not only according to the traffic, the latitude and longitude, but even -other atmospheric conditions. Another important consideration after the good pavement Is down is to keep it in repair and to keep it clean. The common American custom is to wait until practically the whole structure goes to pieces and then to lay a new one. The European practice is to .keep repairing all the time. If an inch of pavement becomes fractured or in any way out of repair, it Is remedied at once.—Good Roads Magazine.