Show The Earth Road Should Be Built By Richard Lyman of Civil University of and Vice-Chairman Stale Road Commission Great great and great advances in science they do not spring into existence So it will be with the installation of good roads the system must No legislation can be enacted that will bring into existence suddenly a fine system of well made and well maintained The beginning must be at the bottom where even the best legislation can give no more than a good beginning and by the vigorous application of work and a system of roads may be constructed that will be not only the pride of the citizens of the but a source of and because good roads will make it easy for boys and girls to get to the grade and young men and young women to the high schools at all seasons of the because farm products can be put in the market when the price is and teams can be used profitably at other work when they cannot be used on the because of the comfort with at all those in the country can thus making it possible to have and enjoy the many social advantages in the the and the neighbor's by enacting into law the best road legislation it the legislature has made a it is then the duty of the people to begin to learn more concerning roads and their It may be in the to picture hard roads leading advocating their construction at once and working ever so vigorously to this will probably delay rather than advance this for the reason that the cost of their maintenance is such if these roads were already it would be impossible in this state at present to keep them in good It will take years of education to teach the people to place that value upon good roads that will induce them to both in the construction and maintenance of even a small fraction of the sum it would require to keep in repair an extensive system of hard roads in Farmers see at once when their actual cost is that to make such outlays for them utterly and absolutely First in the natural development of a system of highways comes the earth and since a good road of this character is the very best foundation for all kinds of better it may be not only as a road complete in and of but also as an important part of every good When the people throughout the state have been so taught and trained to actually construct and maintain earth roads in good the foundation will then be laid for or in fact for any better and the time will have arrived in which the construction of roads with hard surfaces of some sort can be taken up appropriately and perhaps The discussion on road and road maintenance of the past few years has pretty well demonstrated that people generally are ot the opinion that the roads should be improved and that with the general improvement of the roads will corne a corresponding improvement in the prosperity and general uplifting of the people in the country while the opinion is general that roads should be there is a vast difference of opinion as' to what is the best method to follow to reach the desired Hard Men with money and automobiles are vigorously urging that road building materials everywhere be that road stone and other expensive road-building machinery be and that the preparation for commencing road construction be begun at In they are conducting a vigorous campaign in the interest of hard roads and in so they may defeat their own cause now as they have done in the the hard-road enthusiast began to tell the farmer how much it cost him to haul his produce to says Professor how much be could save by the construction of hard he knew instinctively that the conclusions were and the continual harping upon these false statistics and absurd estimates led him to believe that an attempt was being made to force hard roads' upon whether or and his attitude changed from one of indifference to one of open hostility to all road should be the line of a community is willing and able to maintain the earth roads in a reasonably good says Professor Baker is useless to expect that it will be willing or able to support a high class wagon and the dissemination of correct information concerning the construction and care of earth roads is and physically the first step towards a better form of An earth road to be a good road must be and These three conditions could be maintained with comparative ease if the earth road could be protected from which is its greatest destroyer tn factors aU roads r of Since in Utah the rainfall is verv small compared with that in the East in the states of the MiS- TS- J E- p. C. Vol p. the road problem is much simpler one here than there If not actually the most important certainly the drainage of a road is 0 of the most important factors to be in the construction or in maintenance of that A system of is a n where the surface water near the top of the ground on a road is to be and drain tile laid longitudinally on boards to a carefully and properly made grade will such water Fortunately for the builders of roads in Utah there are comparatively few such places where roads need to be in this Drain laid in soft without the use of a board or plank to keep the ends of the individual pieces of pipe jn is practically Standard It is the small amount of precipitation or rainfall only that the road builder here must take care Very wisely the last legislature passed a law establishing a standard cross-section for the roads in this Figures 1 and 6 show a clearer what these cross-sections than these can be shown in the law by the use of words ses 1 h T- I sS i the The elevation of the crown of the road above the fence line varies from four inches to eighteen the amount depending on the width of the and the depth of the drain ditches on the sides of the roadway is as shown some two feet below the grade of the fence The roadways and sidewalks as the figures giving the cross-sections all have such that water falling upon these surfaces will flow quickly into the drain Road Some of our country roads in have been very well constructed as far as the cross section is but no particular attention has been paw to the grade of the road in the direction of its length except when wort has been done to reduce the grade on steep should have a grade or slope of about 1 to or 1 per direction of their so that water will not remain in any small ruts may be but will flow along them to a point where it will the rut into the drain Drain The slope of the drain should be the same as the slope road and their cross-sections practically the same at all A. that all the water flowing into them will flow promptly to a nearby cross drain that will carry it entirely away from the In many cases uneven holes are dug on either side of the roadway in order to secure material for making the of the road and the gathers in keeps A m K Even more important than a proper construction of a road is the proper I maintenance of that There is a t between maintenance r and The one keeps the road in good condition the other puts it in good condition a minute and a of earth will do as maintenance may require loads of earth and hours of time as The road grader with its inclined its four and its comparatively complex when used that it will constantly carry the earth from the outer edge toward the crown of the it makes the center of the road as it while the lev-eler makes it The triangular shaped drag to a certain the good qualities of both the devices just but what is generally regarded as the best device for repairing and maintaining earth roads is the King road drag or the split-log Split-Log A split-log drag actually constructed of a log split in two is shown in while this same constructed of is shown in Practically all the good qualities of all the other devices used up to this time for maintaining earth roads are found in the split-log b V r 7 9 3 1 J 1 1 KU T. T. 3 M f V r V roc the foundation under the road always Cross-drains should be provided at all Culverts should be constructed under the roadway at these points to carry the water from t the upper to the lower side of the E I If storm water is carried quickly f well away from a the condition A for maintaining or repairing an earth road merely cuts off the high places and deposits in the low the earth thus cut Devices for The a frame-work of planks held on edge and drawn in the direction of the length of the road with three or four of the timbers at right angles' to this renders good I 5 h 4 u of that road for traveling will be greatly But rain and other storms do not generally put roads into their worst comes in the spring when the frost out of the Observation that not much frost gets into dry so that if a road is properly maintained during the and the fall and winter storm water is promptly drained well away from the frost can do the road very little It cannot loosen up the rendering it soft and as it does earth that is filled with To make good earth roads in the requires good drainage and careful maintenance during the fall and The average country road in Utah can be constructed with its center raised six inches for from to per To raise the crown of the road six inches more above the I sides will cost about the same service by taking off the high places and filling up the low The weight of this device and the greater width of its make it pack the earth into low places better than the road grader But since the blade of the grader can be set at such an angle with the direction of the road 7 shows the drag with the doubletree and therefore it shows the position of the team drawing the drag with respect to the drag The diagonal brace between the two heavy timbers near the forward end is used to keep the end of the timber which travels ahead from The chain by which this device is drawn may be attached directly the front timber or it may be extended through in this timber and be attached to the timber in the instead of passing through the hole A the chain is carried over this timber and attached to the timber more room will thus be made for earth in front of the drag to slide under the The angle the sides of the drag make with the direction of the road can be varied at pleasure by attaching the doubletree to different links of the The teamster will soon learn by experience that changing his position as he rides on the drag will affect the V 9 s I X work of the drag very and he will soon learn also how and when to change his position in order to obtain the best Importance of Using The proper and best use of this L S- s. i jj drag or the careful maintenance of the ordinary earth road is perhaps the most important lesson in Utah people have to learn at this It is more important than the actual grading or construction of these o When to Use This drag should be used upon the road after every heavy rain and after every big thaw as faithfully as the successful dry-farmer harrows his crop at these same the road dries faster than the fanning so that the work on the roads can be completed before teams to be taken upon the farms to Professor Baker of the University of in an excellent article on the maintenance of roads in the Transactions of the American Society m of Civil gives a description and also drawings of the split-log His drawings are reproduced in and He describes the drag as follows in different parts of the country for many have used various devices occasionally in smoothing the surface of the earth but of all none seems to have devised a better form of machine or been more persistent and intelligent in its use than D. Ward of King devised what he calls the split-log A plan of the split-log drag as shown in and 8 is a perspective The drag may be made from a log ten or twelve inches diameter and from seven to nine feet A light like is preferable to a heavy like The cross braces may be round or square sticks from three to four inches in the ends fitting into two-inch auger A not shown in the is laid upon the cross-pieces for the driver to stand The drag may also be made of two pieces of ten or twelve inches wide and from seven to nine feet Th plank drag is shown in It is wise to reinforce the wide planks with either a. 1 by or a 2 by strip as shown in drag is drawn by two and its length should be proportional the weight of the A drag seven feet long is about right for a team of and one nine feet long for two The driver rides upon the and varies its effect by his position upon The o it KeU to drag it the surface Common Mistakes With Mr the government expert mistakes on the commonly made in constructing are The first lies in making it a Too It should be so light that one man can easily lift a light drag responds more readily to various methods of hitching and to the and weight of the of the position A drag can be made heavier at any time by proper weight- ing- other mistake is m the use oi t square instead of those with sharp whereby the cutting of sharp is lost and the drag is permitted to glide over instead of to equalize the irregularities in the surface of the Iron on strip of iron about 3 feet three or four inches wide and ter of an inch thick may be used for the This should be attached to the front slab so that it will be one-half inch below the lower edge of the slab at the ditch while the end of the iron toward the middle of the road should be flush with the edge of the The bolts holding the blade place should have flat heads and the holes to receive them should be the face of the log stands it is well to wedge out the lower edge 11 of the blade with a three-cornered strip W of wood to give it a set like the bit of a n H. Hoyt of the U. S. Office of Public V Tery Simple affair- costs to economical to and every farmer or teamster living along a country who is interested in PMt his kept in aDd is also interested to To maintain in this way all the important will make it th at are t i when this work should Perhaps some 1 The Use of the Split-Log Drag on Roads V S Cornell Civil tern can be devised that will each farmer to maintain that of road in his doing he may be exempt from a cash road Those who do so can pay the tax in the funds thus derived can be pay for the general supervision of tv and for the t a work of maintenance on the r f where farmers do not care to d 0 tte work Earth or Macadam Since the road is an excellent and since I is possible with reasonable effort to in duee the people to construct and main tain such a road from one end of state to the with a good many side roads of the same sort on the way why not strive for this possible eni instead of attempting to get a fei miles of hard road Suet a road could be pointed to with pride by every citizen of the state in tie presence of any citizen of any other Would it not be better to have a well constructed and carefully maintained earth road from Logan to St. a distance of than to have the test tar macadam road for a distance of 37 miles between Ogden and Salt Lake The longer road would cost with many interested and Trilling people to pay for while the other would cost thirty-seven times as much with people personally in Every farmer between Logan and St. George drives upon tie public while many persons in the larger cities if Cost of An ordinary macadam road two rods wide costs about per a tar macadam road about per V an asphaltum pavement some per a gravel covered with gravel one foot eoj from to per and cost of constructing an earth road u same width varies from to f per ts While the figures given are the e of constructing various roads two this occasion is taken to the fact that a road saw feet wide is broad enough in country while in tied parts even narrower roads answer all actual needs very Ordinary Ordinary macadam stone composed of carefully a and gravel thoroughly rolled i compact with the maten A graded that the coarsest stones are on the bottom and the finer binding material is on the Such a roadway proved very satisfactory until the general advent of the In order to resist the digging or scratching effect of the driving wheels of high speed motor which is technically |