Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1919 — GOOD ROADS [ARTICLE]

GOOD ROADS

There is probably no one subject before the public as prominent as Good Roads. You often hear people tell about the good old times when the neighbors would meet “to work the roads,” and lying under the shade trees patiently awaiting for quitting time. Yet I am confident there never was a time when, there was as much money wasted on the roads as there is now. Probably not as much in proportion to the amount used, but it is entirely too large. The greatest foe to good roads is water. Many experiments have been tried to keep the road beds dry. In Louisiana they tried building sheds over the roads but that proved too expensive for the good received. In this country our main dependence is ' a good drain, and it is by far the cheapest way of making roads we have. Every road should have a tile drain the full length of it, and many of them should have two lines of tile. They should be deep enough to not freeze down, but the depth should be regulated a little by the nature of the soil. Sand, muck or porous soil, which can be laid in much deeper than in clay or compact soil. But drain and drain well. That is especially important near the top of hills or on the hill-side and where the ground is liable to be seepy. Take the money formerly spent in high grade and deep ditches and use it in good tile drainage and leave out big open ditches which are a serious menace to property and lives. What would you think of a ditch three or four feet deep along the streets of our cities? They are simply roads and what is good in one place ought to be good somewhere else. See. No ditches along the roads should be so deep that a wagon or auto would be in danger of upsetting into them. „ Fifty or sixty years ago we spent lots of time and money trying to make hedge fences. Now we are spending nearly as much trying to get rid of them. The same will hold good with our big road ditches soon. Building big public ditches along the roads is another serious danger and in all such cases there should be a good solid fence along the range line road between Remington and Rensselaer. It is only a question of time when some one will be found under their auto in the bottom of the ditch. And who will be to blame? Under our new road law perhaps our county commissioners will look after some of these man traps. After a road is drained it should tiien be graded just' enough to round it in the center sufficient to run the water up to the outside, except where necessary to fill in on cut out to reduce the grades to the lowest practicable limit. Then the road should be rolled and re-rolled until as solid as possible as U can be well made before anything

in shape of stone or gravel is applied. If a good durable road is wanted, there should be about six inches of stone spread on evenly and rolled thoroughly. This should be crushed stone, crusher run, maximum 2 inches. Never use screened stone for a- base. I know that contractors fight using crushed run stone, tooth and toe nail because it makes about twenty-five per cent, more stpne than when screened. No wonder they oppose it, but insist on mixed stone for base and full measure. Then three or four inches of that, thoroughly rolling both layers when laid, and if done when damp a good solid road which will last will, be the result. Another error that attorneys and petitioners, and which even road men are guilty of, is to make the roads of unifroni depth of stone or gravel, regardless of what foundation they have. Now as the counties are building the roads it is highly necessary to use .enough material to make aj good road and no more. In short, we want our roads like the deacon’s famous “One Hoss' Shay.” One part just as good as; another. Now it is a fact not generally known that there is a big difference in the soil under the stone as to stability. Eight inches of stone on sand is as good as ten inches of good loam and better than twelve inches on muck foundation, and will remain good longer than fifteen inches in seepy clay soil. Now why 'Use two or three inches extra on good foundations and leave the bad foundations to go to wreck. The should not use a uniform depth of material unless the soil is uniform, but should vary as the soil changes, thus getting a uniformly good road at a minimum cost.

High Grade Road*. We see they have a petition for a high grade road running through the county. Such a road to cost a great deal of money and sholud not great deal of money doing it in the most durable manner possible. If we should look carefully what wears out roads and why they go to pieces it will help greatly toward building permanent roads. If you look carefully you will notice that when a wagon, especially a loaded wagon, goes over our stone roads they crush the small stones sa as to form a powder on the surface. It protects the hard stone from the wear and tear, and henfee the road wears off very little. When a heavy wagon has left a train of protective dust in its wake, along comes an auto with its low frame and high speed and whilrs up the dust, and leaves the road as bare as if vacuum cleaner had gone over it, and the grinding process has to be repeated under the most favorable circumstances for grinding possible to be swept by the next auto. Un hard, smooth surfarces autos or any rubber-tired vehicle will not make a sensible wear in

years of use. Now if we want a smooth durable road, the method is simple. Build a road wide enough for a double track, pave half of it with cement. “Don’t use brick if you want a smooth, easy riding road,) and pave the other half with crushed stone. Then by some strict ordinance positively forbid all steel tired vehicles or horses from traveling on the cement side. It might take a few prosecutions to get the public trained to it but they would soon come to it - ~ . A road of this make will cost but little to maintain, but under our present system the maintainance of roads is going to be something which will be appalling, and the sooner we come to this the better off we will be. The limits for speed as far as safety in concerned has long since been passed. Now if one is only satisfied with a moderate rate of speed in an auto let him take the airplane and observe rules that all planes going in one direction should go at a certain elevation, while those going in the opposite direction should go on a different elevation. But there is a lot of us old fogies that want to stick to the surface awhile yet and are willing to pay for the good roads, but we want the best we can get for the money both now and hereafter. Lewis S. Alter