REPAIRS.
After a road is located and constructed, economy as well as public
convenience demands that it be kept in good condition the year
round. If a road is allowed to go for several months at a time
without repairs, ruts and holes are likely to form on its surface,
and frequently the middle becomes lower than the sides. Then, in
order to put it in good condition again, a great deal of work and
expense are necessary, whereas if every break is repaired
immediately, much less labor and expense are required to keep up the
road for the same length of time, besides the increased advantage
and convenience of a good road from day to day.
No doubt our roads could be kept in better condition than at present
without any additional expense, by the application of good sense and
business principles in their management. The present system in
nearly all our country towns consists in dividing up the roads into
districts, and appointing a highway surveyor for each district, with
a stated allowance of money to expend on repairs; and sometimes the
tax-payer residing in the district has a right to work out his road
tax. This surveyor is usually a farmer, who is very busy during
planting-time in the spring, and during the haying and harvesting
seasons; and consequently he works upon the roads between the
planting and the haying seasons, or in the autumn after he has
finished the fall work upon his farm. It sometimes happens that he
works out all the money allowed him in early summer, and then
nothing more is done for a year.
If a road is only to be repaired once a year, the work ought to be
done in the spring, when the soil is moist and will pack together
hard, and not in the summer, when it is dry and turns easily to
dust, nor in the late autumn, when the fall rains make it muddy. The
surveyor generally makes the repairs by ploughing up the road-bed
and smoothing it off a little, or else by ploughing up the dust,
turf, and stones alongside the road-bed, and scraping the same upon
it. After this is done he goes about his farm work.
The stones in the road soon begin to work up to the surface, and
remain there like so many footballs for every horse to kick as he
passes over them. A horse-path naturally forms in the centre of the
road, and wheel-ruts upon either side, which make excellent channels
for the water to run in during every rain-storm. At first the water
finds its way over the water-bars in small quantities; but the
channels increase in depth with every shower, and soon during every
hard rain there are from one to three streams of water running over
the road-bed from the top to the bottom of nearly every hill, and as
a consequence the road is washed all to pieces. The road then
generally remains in this condition until the next fall, and
sometimes until the next spring. When a road is repaired in this
way, it follows as a matter of course that it is in a bad condition
all the year round. Just after repairs the road is wretched, for it
is then in better condition to be planted than to be travelled over;
when trodden down a little, the wash of the rains and the loose
stones make it bad again; it then grows worse and worse until
another general repair makes it wretched again, and so on _ad
infinitum_. The only way to remedy this state of affairs is to
change the system.
There should be only one highway surveyor for the whole town, with
authority to supply such men and teams as may be necessary to keep
the roads in a good state of repair. Let them not only work in the
early summer and fall, but at all times when there is anything which
needs to be done to the roads. A few shovels of dirt and a little
labor in the nick of time will do more towards keeping a road in
good condition than whole days of ploughing and scraping once or
twice a year only. Every good housewife knows that there is a world
of truth in the old maxim, "A stitch in time saves nine." The
managers of all our well-conducted railroads understand this. They
have a gang of men pass often over each section of the roads.
What would be said of a mill-owner who should let his milldam wash
away once or twice each year, and then rebuild it instead of keeping
it in constant repair? The proprietors of the great turnpike road
from Sacramento to Virginia City in California, which runs mainly
over mountains a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, and has an
annual traffic of seven or eight thousand heavy teams, have found by
careful experiment that the cheapest way to keep that great road in
good condition is to have every portion of it looked after every
day, and during dry weather every rod of it is sprinkled with water.
This continual-repair system was adopted in Baden, Germany, 1845. It
was soon found that it was less expensive and more satisfactory than
the old system of annual repairs. Other European countries soon
found it to their advantage to follow Baden's example in this
respect; and now the new system is in universal use in all the
civilized nations of Europe. As a consequence the roads in those
countries as a general thing are in splendid condition throughout
the year. They are on an even grade, and as smooth as a racing-track
in this country. The poorest roads in France, Germany, Switzerland,
or Great Britain are as good as the best of our own. They are nearly
all macadamized, and are kept in continuous repair by laborers and
competent engineers and surveyors, who give their sole labor and
attention to the roads as a business throughout the year.
But it is not necessary to go to Europe to prove the superiority of
the new system over the old. Many towns in this country, especially
those situated in the vicinity of the large cities, have adopted the
new system, and find by experiment that it is better than the old.
An intelligent citizen and town official of Chelmsford, Mass., Mr.
Henry S. Perham, thus describes the operation of the old and the new
system in that town: "Until 1877 the old highway district system,
common in the New England country towns, was in vogue here. Eleven
highway surveyors were chosen annually in town-meeting, who had
charge of the roads in their respective districts; and although the
town appropriated money liberally for highway repairs, the roads
seemed to be continually growing worse, owing to the superficial
manner in which the repairs were made. In 1877 the town adopted an
entirely different plan for doing the work. The plan was to choose
one surveyor for the whole town, who was to have charge of all the
roads, and the town to purchase suitable teams and implements to be
kept at the town farm. This is now the ninth year in which this
system has been in practice, and the result of the change has been
most satisfactory. The advantages are that the surveyor is chosen
for his especial fitness for the work. The men under him are mostly
employed by the month and boarded at the town farm, where the teams
are also kept. A force now costing the town ten dollars per day will
accomplish more and better work in one week than would be ordinarily
accomplished by a surveyor under the old system in a season. And the
reason is obvious. The men and teams are accustomed to the work; the
best implements and machinery are employed, road-scrapers doing the
work where the nature of the soil will permit; and what is still
more important, the work is directed by the surveyor to the best
advantage. In the winter season the teams break out the roads after
heavy snows, and in fair weather cart gravel on to the roads as in
summer. And although we have an extraordinary length of road to
support,--namely, two hundred and seventy-five miles, being more by
twenty-five miles than any other town in the State,--there has been
a marked and continual improvement in their condition.
"When this plan was first presented to the attention of the town, it
met with sharp opposition, and passed by only a small majority; but
the favor with which it is now regarded may be judged by the fact
that since its adoption it has met with almost universal approval,
and we should now as soon think of going back to the school-district
system or to support the churches by taxation as of returning to the
old method of repairing our roads."
This method is undoubtedly better than the old district system; but
the system of the future will not include a road-scraper except for
the building of new roads. Any system is radically defective which
scrapes the dust and worn-out soil of the gutters or the turf and
loam of the roadside upon the road-bed. Perhaps this kind of
repairing is better than none in many localities; but as
civilization advances and the true principles of road-making become
better known, after the foundation of a road-bed has been properly
established, nothing but good road material will ever be put upon
it, and this will be put there from time to time as needed to keep
up a continual good condition of the road.