Show seek to advance good roads plans lion II owell representative att it washington D C and prof richard R L man of the department of civil engineering of utah havo begun a rather vigorous vigo ious and extensive campaign in the interest of good roads in tho state of utah prof L man liis prepared in article on the construction and maintenance of airth roads in this article it is pointed out thit pavements of various kinds and in fact gravel roads also are so expensive that an extensive system of raids throughout the state of any one of cannot he constructed the whole article is an argument in favor of building roads of ordinary earth and keeping ahcin in good before any very general effort is put forth to construct hard roads this article lias been gotten out by the experiment station of the university of utah in alio form of d bulletin in it the etan daid cross sections fixed by law by the last legislature arc given and drawings are also produced giving the details of constructing the king road drag winch is a cheap device by use of which at a comparatively small cost earth roads ran bo kept always in good condition and tho remainder of alie time in fairly good condition three thousand copies of this bulletin are to bo distributed throughout the state for the purpose of convincing the people that this method of road construction 13 that which should bo adopted first in order to alio arguments set forth in the bulletin above mentioned mr biowell hai obtained copies of a booklet issued by the department of agriculture entitled the use of tho split log drag on earth roads and this excellent paper will bo distributed with tho bulletin sent out bv alio university of utah this government pamphlet lias been prepared by mr D howard king of alio department part ment of public roads alio 19 probably alie expert on alie use of the falit log drag tim ar tide also emphasizes the importance of tho earth roid in good condition it shows that in actual practise a road maintained td with the split log drag 13 not only kept smooth and hard but that it also reduces the quantity of dust winch accumulates on the road concerning matter the bulletin says clay when mixed with water and thoroughly worked becomes remarkably gourli and impervious to water if compacted in this condition in becomes hard another valuable alu able result of dragging is the reduction of dust for the particles of clay adhere so tenaciously ati at there is but little wear when the surface is smooth dust on an earth road is duo to the hi caking up under traffic of the framed and upturned edged of ruta and hoof prints if the surface is smoothed after each rain and the road dries hard and even no edges arc exposed to crushing and the only dust which forms is that duo to alio actual wear of the road surface thice who are in this movement expect to be able to turn the attention of the good road enthusiasts to the earth road and they liepe that in the course of a very few cars an excellent system of smooth hard dry highways of earth will bo constructed reaching into cery part of the state of utah this is a tiling they believe can be cosily attained while they are convinced that efforts put forth to build road systems in a more way will only result in discouragement and final failure news |