Richard Roswell Lyman

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 4] 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The teachers are all specialists and the methods of instruction modern. For mining work the location of the school is unexcelled, Salt Lake City being the center of a great mining region, which makes it easy to provide abundant and inexpensive field work. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”