Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-12-12 | Page 30 | Engineers Discuss Automobile Roads at Annual Meeting

Engineers Discuss I I Automobile Roads I I At Annual Meeting I , WAHIXGTOX Why highways fail' iw.is ;he topic of discussion tak"n UP by engineers, highway officials and (entitle men In leading universities at la meeting of the sub-grade committee thc fe.ier.il highwav council at WS1-'mlngton. WS1-'mlngton. Del.. Nov 22 and 23 under !the chairmanship of (Jen. T. Coleman Du Pont of New York. Reports were made by problem , omniitt.es working under a mam committee. During the discussion I w hich followed the presentation of these reports the statement was made l W. P. Blair of Cleveland, Ohio, that !'). mio.lMin people had been added to i the population of the United States, practically without one inch being added to th. transportation facilities I of the country, anil that on top of this Increased population was an Increased In-creased tonnag- due to greater buy-ling buy-ling by tlu people equal to another twenty million, making a total of forty i million. In the face of lnadcn,uat j Ira nsportatlon. The result of this Increased lon- nag- It was asserted, had been to break down roads through no fault of onstructlon, but because traffic growth had not been taken into full ! account. i The development of railway engl-; engl-; heerlng was used as an example to how why heavier lyp highways must Di b illt since the same law Of toning, ton-ing, growth applies to both the rall-vvnv rall-vvnv and the highway. In the, case of railway, Mr. Hlnir nsserted. the la-,lng la-,lng of heavier rails, enlarging tunnels i and reducing grades has been going on constantly during the last thirty or forty years, and yet the highway 'without a comparative development had been called upon within the last ten enra to sustain a traffic growth unequaled In any like period In tho history of the Country, The situation 'thus created, it wav pointed out. called for a determined effort to build better Iroad foundations in order that breaks I in the surface may be eliminated General Du Ponl followed Hiair With the statement that the problem Ol the BUbgrade or road foundation, w is the most important duty before highway engineers and officials coday( I It was Ills belief, as a result of eXperl-i eXperl-i nee In highway development, that the foundation problem must be solved and solved speedily, otherwise the movement to round out a complete system of county, state and interstate highway transportation will be retarded, retard-ed, to the great detriment of the American publt.-. C. M- Upham, state highway cngi-'neer cngi-'neer of Delaware, explained how his department was making field tests to determine the bearing power of various vari-ous kinds of soil and what methods to pursue In order t.i increase that sustaining power and thus prevent the I breaking down of the road surface. I I n the point of road failures. Mr.1 ntlort i barged With having failed, despite the SSSSJ fact that In actual service, they ma , H have saved their cost many times over SBSJ 'before reaching the point where re- BSS construction becomes necessary- 1 W H hoped he said, that the public would H take this fact into account In their ISH future discussions relating to road H '.building. lt M . S M Williams, chairman of the fed- SBSJ era highway council, addressed the H committee briefly upon the Import- PSSl lance Of conducting the sub-grade re- ! search work as rapidly as possible In H order thai road building upon a great- H it scale than ever may go forward SBSJ without Wasteful expenditure of fundi I upon roads that soon prove unequal !lo the burden thrust upon them 'through a lack of Improper' under- standing of the soil upon which the. sub-grade rests. i oo ssal