_By Richard R. Lyman
Prof. of Civil Engineering, University of Utah,
and Vice-Chairman
State Road Commission_
Great institutions, great movements, and great advances in science
grow, they do not spring into existence instantly. So it will be with
the installation of good roads—the system must grow. No legislation can
be enacted that will bring into existence suddenly a fine system of
well made and well maintained highways. The beginning must be at the
bottom where even the best legislation can give no more than a good
beginning and then, by the vigorous application of work and wisdom, a
system of roads may be constructed that will be not only the pride of
the citizens of the state, but a source of education, prosperity, and
pleasure. Education, because good roads will make it easy for boys and
girls to get to the grade schools, and young men and young women to
the high schools at all seasons of the year; prosperity, because farm
products can be put in the market when the price is highest, and teams
can be used profitably at other work when they cannot be used on the
farm; pleasure, because of the comfort with which, at all times, those
in the country can travel, thus making it possible to have and enjoy
the many social advantages offered in the club, the church, and the
neighbor’s home.
When, by enacting into law the best road legislation it can, the
legislature has made a beginning, it is then the duty of the people to
begin to learn more concerning roads and their maintenance. It may be
well, in the imagination, to picture hard roads leading everywhere,
but, advocating their construction at once and working ever so
vigorously to this end, will probably delay rather than advance this
work, for the reason that the cost of their maintenance is such that,
if these roads were already constructed, it would be impossible in this
state at present to keep them in good condition. It will take years of
education to teach the people to place that value upon good roads that
will induce them to spend, both in the construction and maintenance of
highways, even a small fraction of the sum it would require to keep in
repair an extensive system of hard roads in Utah. Farmers see at once
when their actual cost is presented, that to make such outlays is, for
them, utterly and absolutely impossible.
First in the natural development of a system of highways comes the
earth road, and since a good road of this character is the very best
foundation for all kinds of better highways, it may be considered, not
only as a road complete in and of itself, but also as an important
part of every good road. When the people throughout the state have
been so taught and trained in road construction that they can and do
actually construct and maintain earth roads in good condition, the
foundation will then be laid for some, or in fact for any better road,
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
effectively.
The discussion on roads, road construction, and road maintenance of
the past few years has pretty well demonstrated that people generally
are of the opinion that the roads should be improved and that with the
general improvement of the roads will come a corresponding improvement
in the prosperity and general uplifting of the people in the country
districts; yet, while the opinion is general that roads should be
improved, there is a vast difference of opinion as to what is the best
method to follow to reach the desired end.
Hard Roads.
Men with money and automobiles are vigorously urging that road-building
materials everywhere be tested, that road graders, stone crushers,
and other expensive road-building machinery be purchased, and that
the preparation for commencing road construction be begun at once. In
short, they are conducting a vigorous campaign in the interest of hard
roads—and in so doing, they may defeat their own cause now as they
have done in the past. “When the hard road enthusiast began to tell
the farmer how much it cost him to haul his produce to market,” says
Professor Baker, “and how much he could save by the construction of
hard roads, he knew instinctively that the conclusions were ridiculous,
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 him, whether or no, and his attitude changed from one
of indifference to one of open hostility to all road improvement.”[1]
What, then, should be the line of procedure? “Unless a community is
willing and able to maintain the earth roads in a reasonably good
condition,” says Professor Baker again, “it is useless to expect that
it will be willing or able to support a high class wagon road; and
therefore, the dissemination of correct information concerning the
construction and care of earth roads is politically, economically, and
physically the first step towards a better form of construction.”[2]
[Footnote 1: Trans. Am. Soc., C. E., Vol. LXI., p. 475.]
[Footnote 2: Trans. Am. Soc., C. E., Vol. LXI., p. 480.]
An earth road to be a good road must be “dry, smooth, and hard.” These
three conditions could be maintained with comparative ease if the earth
road could be protected from water, which is its greatest destroyer and
one of the most important factors in the destruction or deterioration
of all roads.
Since in Utah the rainfall is very small, compared with that in the
Eastern states and in the states of the Mississippi valley, the road
problem is a much simpler one here than there.
Drainage.
If not actually the most important, certainly the drainage of a road is
one of the most important factors to be considered in the construction
or in the maintenance of that road.
A system of underdrainage is a necessity, where the surface water comes
near the top of the ground on which a road is to be built, and drain
tile laid longitudinally on boards to a carefully and properly made
grade will carry such water away. Fortunately however, for the builders
of roads in Utah there are comparatively few such places where roads
need to be maintained in this state. Drain tile, however, laid in soft
material, without the use of a board or plank to keep the ends of the
individual pieces of pipe in line, is practically valueless.
Standard Cross-Sections.
It is a small amount of precipitation or rainfall only that the road
builder here must take care of. Very wisely the last legislature
passed a law establishing standard cross-sections for the roads in
this state. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 show in a clearer way what
these cross-sections are, than these can be shown in the law by the use
of words only.
The elevation of the crown of the road above the fence line varies
from four inches to eighteen inches, the amount depending on the width
of the street, 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 line.
The roadways and sidewalks as the figures giving the cross-sections
show, all have such slopes, that water falling upon these surfaces will
flow quickly into the drain ditches.
[Illustration: _Two Rod Lane Fig. 1_]
[Illustration: _Four Rod Street Fig. 2_]
[Illustration: _Five Rod Street Fig. 3_]
[Illustration: _Six Rod Street Fig. 4_]
Road Grades.
Some of our country roads in Utah have been very well constructed as
far as the cross section is concerned, but no particular attention
has been paid to the grade of the road in the direction of its length
except when work has been done to reduce the grade on steep pitches.
Roads should have a grade or slope of about 1 to 80, or 1¼ per cent, in
the direction of their length, so that water will not remain in any
small ruts that may be formed, but will flow along them to a point
where it will flow from the rut into the drain ditch.
Drain Ditches.
The slope of the drain ditches should be the same as the slope of the
road and their cross-sections should be practically the same at all
points, so that all the water flowing into them will flow promptly to a
nearby cross drain that will carry it entirely away from the road.
[Illustration: _Seven Rod Street Fig. 5_]
In many cases unsightly, uneven holes are dug on either side of the
roadway in order to secure material for making the crown of the road
and the water, which gathers in these, keeps the foundation under the
road always soft.
[Illustration: _Eight Rod Street Fig. 6_]
Cross-drains should be provided at all “low places.” Culverts should be
constructed under the roadway at these points to carry the water from
the upper to the lower side of the road.
If storm water is carried quickly well away from a road, the condition
of that road for traveling will be greatly improved. But rain and other
storms do not generally put roads into their worst condition. This
comes in the spring time, when the frost “comes out of the ground.”
Observation shows, however, that not much frost gets into dry ground,
so that if a road is properly maintained during the fall, and the fall
and winter storm water is promptly drained well away from the road,
frost can do the road very little damage. It cannot loosen up the
earth, rendering it soft and mushy, as it does earth that is filled
with moisture. To make good earth roads in the spring, therefore,
requires good drainage and careful maintenance during the fall and
winter.
The average country road in Utah can be constructed with its center
raised six inches for from $40.00 to $50.00 per mile. To raise the
crown of the road six inches more above the sides will cost about the
same amount.
Maintenance.
Even more important than a proper construction of a road is the
proper maintenance of that road. There is a difference, too, between
maintenance and repair. The one keeps the road in good condition
always, the other puts it in good condition occasionally. “What a
minute and a shovelful of earth will do as maintenance may require
loads of earth and hours of time as repairs.”
The road grader with its inclined blade, its four wheels, and its
comparatively complex machinery, when used for maintaining or repairing
an earth road merely cuts off the high places and deposits in the low
places, the earth thus cut away.
Devices for Maintenance.
The leveler, 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 direction, renders good service by taking off
the high places and filling up the low ones. The weight of this device
and the greater width of its timbers, make it pack the earth into low
places better than the road grader does. But since the blade of the
grader can be set at such an angle with the direction of the road that
it will constantly carry the earth from the outer edge toward the crown
of the road, it makes the center of the road high, as it should, while
the leveler makes it flat.
[Illustration: _Plan of Split-Log Road Drag Fig. 7_]
The triangular shaped drag has, to a certain degree, the good qualities
of both the devices just named, but what is generally regarded as the
best device for repairing and maintaining earth roads is the King road
drag or the split-log drag.
Split-Log Drag.
A split-log drag actually constructed of a log split in two is shown
in Fig. 8; while this same device, constructed of planks, is shown in
Fig. 9.
[Illustration: _Split-Log Road Drag Fig. 8_]
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 drag.
Fig. 7 shows the drag with the doubletree attached, and therefore it
shows the position of the team drawing the drag with respect to the
drag itself. 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 vibrating. The chain by which this device is drawn may be attached
directly to the front timber or it may be extended through holes in
this timber and be attached to the timber in the rear. If, instead of
passing through the hole A (Fig. 9.) the chain is carried over this
timber and attached to the timber B, more room will thus be made for
earth in front of the drag to slide under the chain.
[Illustration: _Plank Road Drag Fig. 9_]
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 chain.
The teamster will soon learn by experience that changing his position
as he rides on the drag will affect the work of the drag very
materially, and he will soon learn also how and when to change his
position in order to obtain the best results.
Importance of Using Drag.
The proper and best use of this drag or the careful maintenance of the
ordinary earth road is perhaps the most important lesson in “roads”
Utah people have to learn at this time. It is more important than the
actual grading or construction of these roads.
When to Use Drag.
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 times.
Fortunately, too, the road dries faster than the farming land, so that
the work on the roads can be completed before teams can, to advantage,
be taken upon the farms to work.
Professor Ira. O. Baker of the University of Illinois, in an excellent
article on the maintenance of roads in the Transactions of the American
Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXI., gives a description and also
drawings of the split-log drag. His drawings are reproduced in Figs. 7,
8, and 9. He describes the drag as follows:
“Farmers in different parts of the country for many years, have used
various devices occasionally in smoothing the surface of the earth
roads; but of all these, none seems to have devised a better form of
machine or been more persistent and intelligent in its use than Mr.
D. Ward King, of Maitland, Mo. Mr. King devised what he calls the
split-log drag. A plan of the split-log drag as shown in Fig. 7, and
Fig. 8 is a perspective view. The drag may be made from a log ten or
twelve inches in diameter and from seven to nine feet long. A light
wood, like elm, is preferable to a heavy one, like oak. The cross
braces may be round or square sticks from three to four inches in
diameter, the ends fitting into two-inch auger holes. A board, not
shown in the cut, is laid upon the cross-pieces for the driver to stand
upon. The drag may also be made of two pieces of plank, ten or twelve
inches wide and from seven to nine feet long. The plank drag is shown
in Fig. 9. It is wise to reinforce the wide planks with either a 1 by
6-in. or a 2 by 6-in. strip as shown in Fig. 9.
The drag is drawn by two horses, and its length should be proportional
to the weight of the horses. A drag seven feet long is about right for
a team of 1200-lb. horses, and one nine feet long for two 1600-lb.
horses. The driver rides upon the drag, and varies its effect by his
position upon it. The drag does the best work when the soil is moist,
but not sticky. If the roadway is badly rutted and full of holes, it is
well to drag it when the surface is slushy.”
Common Mistakes With Drag.
Mr. King, the government expert on the split-log drag, says:[3] “Two
mistakes are commonly made in constructing a drag. The first lies in
making it too heavy. It should be so light that one man can easily
lift it. Besides, a light drag responds more readily to various
methods of hitching and to the shifting of the position and weight of
the operator. *** A drag can be made heavier at any time by proper
weighting.
The other mistake is in the use of square timbers, instead of those
with sharp edges, whereby the cutting effect of sharp edges is lost
and the drag is permitted to glide over instead of to equalize the
irregularities in the surface of the road. ***”
Iron on Drag.
“A strip of iron about 3½ feet long, three or four inches wide and
one-quarter of an inch thick may be used for the blade. 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 end, while the end of the iron
toward the middle of the road should be flush with the edge of the
slab. The bolts holding the blade in place should have flat heads and
the holes to receive them should be counter-sunk.
If the face of the log stands plumb, it is well to wedge out the lower
edge of the blade with a three-cornered strip of wood to give it a set
like the bit of a plane.”
Mr. Chas. H. Hoyt of the U. S. Office of Public Roads, says,[4] “The
split-log drag is a very simple affair, costs $2.00 to build, is
economical to use, and every farmer or teamster living along a country
road, who is interested in having the road past his place kept in good
condition and is also interested to keep highway taxes down, should
have a split-log drag.”
[Footnote 3: The Use of the Split-Log Drag on Earth Roads, Farmers’
Bulletin, 321, U. S. Department of Agriculture, by D. Ward King, pp. 1,
6 and 7.]
[Footnote 4: The Cornell Civil Engineer, December, 1909, p. 81.]
To maintain in this way all the important rural roads will make it
necessary to put to work many of the teams that are idle when this work
should be done. Perhaps some system can be devised that will require
each farmer to maintain that portion of road in his neighborhood,
and for so doing he may be exempt from paying a cash road tax.
Those who prefer to do so can pay the tax in money, and the funds
thus derived can be used to pay for the general supervision of this
maintenance-work, and for the actual work of maintenance on the roads
where farmers do not care to do the work themselves.
Earth or Macadam Road.
Since the hard, dry, smooth earth road is an excellent road, and
since it is possible with reasonable effort to induce the people to
construct and maintain such a road from one end of this state to the
other, with a good many side roads of the same sort on the way, why
not strive for this possible end, instead of attempting to get a few
miles of hard road constructed? Such a road could be pointed to with
pride by every citizen of the state in the presence of any citizen of
any other state. Would it not be better to have a well constructed and
carefully maintained earth road from Logan to St. George, a distance
of 350 miles, than to have the best tar macadam road for a distance
of 37 miles between Ogden and Salt Lake City? The longer road would
cost $25,000 with many interested and willing people to pay for it,
while the other would cost thirty-seven times as much with fewer people
personally interested in it. Every farmer between Logan and St. George
drives upon the public highway, while many persons in the larger cities
rarely, if ever, do.
Cost of Roads.
An ordinary macadam road two rods wide costs about $20,000 per mile;
a tar macadam road about $25,000 per mile; an asphaltum pavement some
$44,000 per mile; a gravel road, covered with gravel one foot deep,
costs from $1,600 to $5,000 per mile, and the cost of constructing an
earth road the same width varies from $40 to $100 per mile.
While the figures given are the costs of constructing various roads two
rods wide, this occasion is taken to emphasize the fact that a road
sixteen feet wide is broad enough in most country districts, while in
sparsely settled parts even narrower roads will answer all actual needs
very well.
Ordinary Macadam.
Ordinary macadam pavement is composed of carefully selected stone and
gravel thoroughly rolled into a compact mass, with the material so
graded that the coarsest stones are on the bottom and the finer binding
material is on the top. Such a roadway proved very satisfactory until
the general advent of the automobile. In order to resist the digging or
scratching effect of the driving wheels of high speed motor cars, which
is technically called the shear, it is necessary to use tar or some
other binding material for holding the particles of stone more firmly
together.
Tar Macadam.
Tar macadam roads are constructed the same as other macadam roads,
except that the top layers of broken stone are covered with hot tar
before they are rolled into place.
Costs Compared.
If $70 per mile be taken as the cost of constructing an earth road two
rods wide, the cost of building one mile of gravel road will build some
fifty miles of earth road; one mile of ordinary macadam will build 300
miles of earth road; one mile of tar macadam will build 360 miles of
earth road; and one mile of asphalt pavement will construct 600 miles
of earth road.
The Earth Road a Portion of Better Roads.
An important argument in favor of the earth road is the fact that when
it is laid out and constructed, it is the beginning of a first-class
gravel road, a first-class macadam road, or a first-class tar macadam
road, so that by getting the earth road made, the individual interested
primarily in the construction of hard roads has succeeded in getting
the hard road well begun.
Roads in Sand and Soft Clay.
While nearly everywhere in Utah the soil is such that it will make a
good earth road, there are parts in which the soft clay is filled with
alkali, and there are other parts where there are extensive stretches
of sand. Neither of these alone can be made into an earth road that
will be a good, passable road all the year round. The sand road is
best in wet weather, while the alkali road is best in dry weather.
If, however, the soft clay and the sand are so mixed on the road that
the clay just fills the openings or interstices between the grains of
sand, and yet this quantity is not so large as to keep the grains of
sand from touching or coming in contact with one another, the road, if
properly and constantly maintained, will be a good one.
Cost of Maintenance.
Since proper maintenance is an important part of the work on ordinary
roads, its cost will be considered briefly.
The repairs and maintenance on an asphalt pavement cost from 9 to 60
cents per square yard annually, or for a two rod road the cost is from
$1,750 to $11,600 per mile per year; on a tar macadam road the cost is
from $2,000 to $4,000 per mile per year; on a gravel road it is about
$40 per mile per annum, while for $5 per mile per year an earth road
can be kept in a condition of repair that will surprise those who have
not used the split-log drag on such a road.
As already stated, narrower roads will answer all necessary demands in
many parts, and maintaining such will reduce the cost proportionately.
A well kept narrow road is infinitely better than a broad one in bad
condition.
Earth Roads Poorly Kept.
Concerning the maintenance and the construction of roads, Mr. Charles
H. Hoyt of the United States Office of Public Roads, writes:[5] “It is
sad when we have to say that because of neglect the roads that have
already been built have been allowed to go to pieces and have not been
properly maintained. Even our ordinary dirt roads are horrible examples
of this statement.”
On the value to a community of good roads, Mr. Hoyt says, in the same
article: “Any country which longer continues to insist upon remaining
stagnant concerning highways, will soon be classed behind the times and
avoided by progressive citizens.”
Mr. D. Howard King, Expert on Split-log Drag, Office of Public Roads,
has prepared a bulletin called Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 321, on “The Use
of the Split-Log Drag on Earth Roads.” All who are interested in this
subject should secure a copy of this excellent paper from the United
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and make a careful
study of the same.
[Footnote 5: The Cornell Civil Engineer, Dec., 1909.]
Drag Reduces Dust.
On the use of this drag the bulletin says, in part: “Clay, when
mixed with water and thoroughly worked, becomes remarkably tough
and impervious to water. If compacted in this condition it becomes
extremely hard. Another valuable result of dragging is the reduction
of dust, for the particles of clay adhere so tenaciously that there is
but little wear when the surface is smooth. Dust on an earth road is
due to the breaking up under traffic of the frayed and upturned edges
of ruts and hoof prints. If the surface is smoothed after each rain and
the road dries hard and even, no edges are exposed to crushing, and the
only dust which forms is that due to actual wear of the road surface.”
Examples and Their Cost.
The bulletin quotes Mr. F. P. Sanborne[6] as follows: “The least
expense per mile (for dragging) was about $1.50; the greatest, a little
over $6; the average expense per mile for five and one-half miles, a
little less than $3.” Continuing, Mr. Sanborne says: “The writer has
lived by this piece of road all his life, and although we have had the
extremes of weather this season, both wet and dry, not for forty years
has the road in question been so free from mud and dust. Parties who
have known the road all their lives are agreed that it never was in so
good a condition a season through.”
[Footnote 6: Report of Highway Commission of Maine, 1906, p. 112.]
“The total expense for twelve months on twenty-eight miles of road in
Iowa,” continues Mr. Hoyt, “averaged $2.40 per mile, and the roads were
reported to have been ‘like a race track’ the larger portion of the
year.
A number of farmers in Ray county, Missouri, employed one of their
number to drag a five-mile stretch. He received compensation at the
rate of $3 per day. When the end of the year came and a settlement was
made, the cost for the year was found to be $1.66 per mile. The road is
a tough clay, and my informant declares it was always much better than
the other roads in the neighborhood.
Prof. William Robertson of the Minnesota Agricultural station, after
a year’s experience in dragging a ‘main road made entirely of gumbo,
without any sand or gravel, and which during the past year has shown
no defects either by rutting or development of soft places,’ fixes the
cost of the work at not to exceed $5 per mile.”
Since in Maine, Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota, the four states just
referred to, there is a comparatively great annual rainfall, while in
Utah the rainfall is comparatively small, the cost of maintaining the
earth road in Utah will be correspondingly less and the results will be
proportionately greater.
If the state legislature, the Automobile Club of Utah, some other
organization or some philanthropic individual, will offer an annual
prize of $1000 to the county actually constructing and maintaining
during the year the best five miles of earth road, the number of
excellent roads that will be built in the next few years will be a most
pleasant surprise to all who are anxious to see good roads constructed.
The better, and, in fact, the best roads will come along naturally
after we have a first-class system of earth roads built and well
maintained generally throughout the state. When once the efforts of all
our good-roads enthusiasts are united on constructing and maintaining
first-class earth roads everywhere, the road problem in Utah will be
solved, and our road systems will be the pride of the whole state.
What is the State School of Mines?
The State School of Mines is the college of engineering of the
University of Utah. It is an organic part of the University and enjoys
all the advantages that spring from an intimate connection between a
technical college and a modern university.