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Show ROADS AND ROAD MATERIALS Highway Should Be No More Expensive Expen-sive Than Traffic Warrants, and Materials Suited to Traffic. (By V. M. CONE. Colorado Agricultural College.) Roads and road materials are the subject of much discussion all over the country. Most of our roads are still being patched up, or, which Is still worse, being turned upside down periodically with plow and scraper,, and a soft road is the certain result. However, some good roads are being built each year. Roads ure a business. busi-ness. If they are good roads they are a good business, if they are bad roads they are a bad business. A road should be no more expensive than the traffic warrants, and the materials of which the road is constructed must be-suited be-suited to the traffic. Cobble stones are good roads for heavy drayage and asphaltum pavements pave-ments are excellent for pleasure vehicles, ve-hicles, but they are certainly not interchangeable in-terchangeable in usage. It would bo as foolish in many cases to have an asphaltum pavement on a country road, as a dirt street in the busy traffic traf-fic district of a city. Too often people lose sight of the. 1 f Good Road Bordered With Lombardy Poplars to Serve as a Windbreak. repairs needed in order to keep roads good, and that is not done without expense. ex-pense. In fact, the maintenance and depreciation charges are usually greater great-er for good roads than for ordinary roads, but goods roads are worth the-extra the-extra expense, and they are, therefore, good business. Many people speak of the surface of a good road as though it were an arch which must support the weight of traffic, but the chief concern In properly constructed good roads is the wear on the road surface material, :aused by the grinding action of wheels and the suction action of rapidly rapid-ly moving automobile tires, which remove re-move the fine dust and binding materials, ma-terials, exposing the coarser and more compact material. . - Macadam, one of the most famous road builders, laid down three rules.-. for making a good road: (1) Good Drainage, (2) Better Drainage, (3) Still Better Drainage; or, In other words, "A good road has a tight roof and a dry cellar." Proper drainage to prevent water from getting into the road from beneath and a good surface to cause the rainfall to run off before entering the foundation, will insure a. good road, because a well-packed earth foundation will sustain the weight of ordinary country traffic without breaking break-ing through. If the surface is not preserved, pre-served, the foundation of the road will be damaged, and this applies to dirt as well as rock roads, for in many cases we find that earth roads are the most advisable kind of good roads and all that the traffic wants. It is necessary to keep the roof tight. Do not allow holes to remain In the road surface, for if they are not repaired the water will collect In them and run through Into the foundation, causing "chuck holes." |