Show Heavy-Duty Heavy Roads Like Romans' Romans Via POUNDING destruction of Tm 1 L heavy hen traffic on modern highway high high- way was has ha caused the revival of some ome of the baste basle engineering principles prin cJ lea UI usei 2000 yearn urt ago alo in construction con con- i of the famous roads of ot ancient Rome Most Moat renowned road in the Roman Roman Roman Ro Ro- man system which at Its Ita peak totaled totaled totaled to to- some miles mlle was wu the mile mUe Via Appia Applan Way leading from Rome southeastward to modern modem and its lt It port of in Otranto OLfan to 0 In the heel of the tha Italian bootA boot A recent t survey surrey by American Amedean engineers showed bowd that the Applan Way Wr t U 1 In better condition than many modem highways and streets In other parts part of 01 the tha an an- dent clent Roman empire trac traces of once fine An roads can be found from found from Britain's Britain Scottish border to Egypt Emt and Syria The Roman road roads owed much of o otheir their longevity and quality to care care- tul painstaking construction and to the engineering principle of building extremely deep heavy foundations foundation Some of the roads are more than 40 inches from their base of large laid hand and fitted stones to the top of the pavement Breakup of thin pavements u i ur r. r der heavy traffic led engineers back to the Roman theories But now great machines do everything from basic excavation to final Mal fin I I i In Roman times the work was done b by hand with slave and military labor Foundation and surface paving blocks were laboriously laboriously laboriously labo labo- fitted together It would probably cost more than a mile mUe to reproduce the hand built Roman road toda today The excellent basic construction principles of the Roman roads are returning to use but other features fea tea tures would rule the ancient high ways out for modern modem traffic Because Because Dec Be De- c cause use the they were used largely largely largely-by by foot foot soldiers and comparatively vely slow glory moving wagons and chariots some grades were extremely steep much too steep for fer easy negotiation tion b by modern wheeled vehicles les |