Gravel road

“ The Ideal Road Gravel.—The ideal road gravel is a mixture of pebbles, sand and earthy material, the pieces varying from coarse to fine in such a manner that when the gravel is compacted into a road surface the spaces [Pg 81] between the larger pebbles are filled with the finer material. The pebbles are of a variety of rock that is highly resistant to wear so that the road surface made from the gravel will have the quality of durability. The gravel possesses good cementing properties, insuring that the pieces will hold together in the road surface. ”

“ The tendency of material to spread under the roller and work toward the sides can be resisted by rolling that portion nearest the gutters first. To give the surface the required form and to secure uniform density, it is necessary at times to employ men with rakes to fill any depressions which may form.
In order to maintain a gravel road in good condition, it is well to keep piles of gravel alongside at frequent intervals, so that the person who repairs the road can get the material without going too far for it. ”

“ The cost of a gravel road, laid twelve feet wide and nine inches deep, and twenty-two feet from out to out, is from 250 to 325 pounds, and it is much more lasting, and more easily repaired than a plank-road. ”

“ If a community cannot pay for a certain type of road, no matter how desirable that may be, that type cannot be used. Types of roads must be selected which will utilize the materials most available. It would seem to be unwise for brick to be shipped from the Middle West to New England, or granite blocks from New England to the Middle West. Gravel, being plentiful in many states, is being used, and rightly so, more than any other road material notwithstanding the durability of a gravel roadway is less than that of many other types. ”

“ The best gravel for road-building stands perpendicular in the bank; that is, when the pit has been opened up the remainder stands compact and firm and cannot be dislodged except by use of the pick, and when it gives way falls in great chunks or solid masses. Such material usually contains tough angular gravel with just enough cementing properties to enable it to readily pack and consolidate, and requires no further treatment than to place it properly on the prepared roadbed. ”

“ There are other cases besides that of gravel, in which I should think it unprofitable to lift a road. The road between —— and —— is made of very soft stone, and is of so brittle a nature, that if it were lifted it would rise in sand, and there would be nothing to lay down again that would be useful. ”

“ The rolling is performed with a three-wheeled self-propelled roller weighing about 8 tons and must be done while the gravel is wet. Generally a sprinkling wagon is used to wet down the gravel, but advantage is always taken of rains to facilitate the work. The gravel must be spread in layers not over 5 or 6 inches thick to get the desired results, which means that for an ordinary gravel road about 10 inches thick, the gravel will be placed in two layers of about equal thickness, each of which will be rolled. ”

“ Almost any gravel deposit can be utilized in some way if the material is of a durable nature, regardless of other characteristics. The serviceability of a gravel road will depend largely on how nearly the gravel approaches the ideal, but variations in the manipulations will do much to overcome deficiencies in materials. ”

“ A broken piece of granite used for macadamising a road is a more complex instrument, about the toolishness of which no doubt can be entertained. It will, however, I think, be held that even a piece of gravel found in situ and left there untouched, provided it is so left because it was deemed suitable for a road which was designed to pass over the spot, would become a tool in virtue of the recognition of its utility, while a similar piece of gravel a yard off on either side the proposed road would not be a tool. ”

“ A gravelly soil is usually the best material for an earth-road, and when practicable every such road should be covered with a coating of it. The larger gravel, however, should never be placed at the bottom and the smaller at the top, as the frost and the vehicles will cause the large gravel to rise and the small to descend, like the materials in a shaken sieve, and the road will never become smooth and hard. ”

“ Thickness of Layer.—The thickness of the layer of gravel required depends both upon the type of soil upon which it is placed and the nature of the traffic to which the road will be subjected. Gravel surfaces should not ordinarily be constructed on highways carrying heavy truck traffic, but if gross loads of three or four tons are the heaviest anticipated, the gravel will be reasonably stable. On such roads, a layer of well compacted gravel ten inches thick will support the loads if a well drained earth foundation is provided. ”

“ One of our principal reasons for selecting this particular road to start with is the fact that we need sand and gravel for the construction of all these roads, and, as a considerable portion of this sand and gravel will have to come from the Williams pit, it will save a great deal of cost in hauling by having good roads for the distribution of the material. I'd like to know if there's a man present who is not in favor of building these concrete roads. ”

“ A couple of inches of concrete laid over a garden-path or a sheep-track, with the cracks filled in with tar, represents the zenith of road construction in this country of ninety odd million inhabitants. I should like to see some of those concrete roads when they have had a few years' solid wear with heavy lorries and occasional traction engines.
Ninety-five per cent. or more, however, of America's highways are dirt roads, or what they are pleased to call "Natural Gravel." In many cases they comprise merely a much worn trail, and as often as not a pair of ruts worn in the prairie. ”

“ Now the principle of road-making I think the most valuable, is to put broken stone upon a road, which shall unite by its own angles, so as to 107form a solid hard surface, and therefore it follows, that when that material is laid upon the road, it must remain in the situation in which it is placed without ever being moved again; and what I find fault with putting quantities of gravel on the road is, that before it becomes useful it must move its situation and be in constant motion. ”

“ Where gravel is the material to complete the road with, I have already mentioned, that it ought to be completely cleansed of every particle of clay or earthy substance, and its different sizes ought to be selected and arranged by means of riddling or washing; in the use of the riddle, the particles of earth or clay adhere so much to the stones that it frequently requires to be exposed to the sun, air, and frost, for several months, and then riddled over again. ”

“ Some earth roads may be greatly improved by covering the surface with a layer of three or four inches of gravel, and sometimes even a thinner layer may prove of very great benefit if kept in proper repair. ”

“ A layer of broken stone, 4 inches thick, is laid over this pavement. The road-covering thus prepared should be rolled with the steam roller until the upper layer has become perfectly compact and consolidated. The second layer, about 3 inches in depth, is then laid on; a coating of clean coarse gravel, 11⁄2 inch thick, termed ‘binding,’ is spread over the surface, and the whole well rolled as before, and you have the requisites of a good road—viz., clean, hard, and even at all seasons. No road should be considered made [66] until it is completely rolled. ”

“ Along the whole road he has raised a footpath, beautifully gravelled. Oh! how I wish our walks had one inch off the surface of this footpath, or that the African magician, or the English equally potent magician of steam, could convey to my mother's elbow in the Dingle one yard of one bank of the gravel which here wastes its pebbles on the mountain side! ”

“ The roadbed should be first graded, then carefully surface-drained. The earth should then be excavated to the depth to which material is to be spread on and the foundation properly shaped and sloped each way from the center so as to discharge any water which may percolate through. This curvature should conform to the curvature of the finished road. A shouldering of firm earth or gravel should be left or made on each side to hold the material in place, and should extend to the gutters at the same curvature as the finished road. ”

“ Do you consider that it would be advisable to pave the whole of the roads, or that the paving of the centre or sides, as has been recommended by some witnesses, would be sufficient?—I apprehend that the paving a proper width in the centre would be quite sufficient, gravel might be proper enough for the sides, upon the same principle that we, in all new roads which are constructed, make use of metalling, or broken stones on the middle part of the road, for about from sixteen to eighteen or twenty feet in breadth, and leave the sides gravelled and kept dry ”

“ If the road is of good stone, four to five inches rise in ten feet is sufficient, gravel, and other inferior material, will allow a little more. In this section it may be worth while to notice the situation of the hedge and ditch, or rill on each side of the road, a more common, but I think a more dangerous and worse way, is to form the ditch close to the road, and to plant the quick upon a raised bank beyond it. ”

“ Poor qualities: rut rather easily and require constant attention to keep them in first-class condition, dusty in dry weather. Gravel sometimes becomes loose on top and rolls under fast moving vehicles, causing skidding. When not thoroughly compacted gravel roads have high tractive resistance. They are particularly well adapted to country roads under medium traffic, especially where gravel may be obtained at [264] a reasonable cost near at hand. At the present time more miles of gravel roads than of any other type of surface are being constructed in the United States. ”

“ In all cases, whether the material is gravel or hard stone, the interstices between the pieces should be filled up solid with smaller pieces, and the finishing made by a thin covering of very small pieces, or road-sand or rubbish, for those interstices must be filled up before the road becomes solid, either in this way or by a portion of the materials of the road being ground down, which last mode occasions a waste of the material, and keeps the road unnecessarily heavy and loose. ”

“ If it is possible to close the road against traffic until the road is dry the method is applicable. Moreover, in long-continued dry weather, the dispersion and loss of considerable gravel from the action of automobile traffic is avoided because the gravel is held between substantial earth berms and the gravel will pack better and hold its shape longer when constructed by the trench method than otherwise. ”

“ The surface of the pavement is then to be covered with an inch or so of fine gravel, that the joints may be always kept full, and that the wheels may not come in contact with the stones while they are at all loose in their places. Attention to these points will very much increase both the smoothness and durability of the paving. I have found great advantage from filling up, or, as it is 169called, grouting the joints with lime-water, which finds its way into the gravel between and under the stones, and forms the whole into a solid concreted mass. ”

“ Gravel. —This, if of a flinty character, and not too much mixed with earthy matter, makes good roads for light traffic, if carefully watched or well rolled during formation. Pit gravel should always be screened through wire screens of 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 gauge, and the small can be used for footpaths.
In some places it is difficult to obtain any natural stone for the purposes of road metal; in these cases slag from blast furnaces or ordinary clinkers from furnaces are sometimes used. ”

“ Huge roadrollers were crushing down the gravel, and several miles of the surface had been smoothed. When a people really want a good road built they can finish it in an incredibly short space of time. ”

“ In what state of the road are you in the habit of laying on fresh materials?—I prefer laying on materials immediately after the road has had a scraping, in consequence of there being upon the surface of the road a small quantity of dirty matter and broken gravel, which then form a sort of cement for the gravel to fix in. ”

“ This road-mending is done by hauling the volcanic gravel out of the river beds, and dumping it in huge piles along the middle of the roads, and as the thoroughfares are not lighted, the result is a wild steeplechase with one wheel in the air. Sometimes fellows come along and spread the gravel out, but more generally it just spreads itself. ”

“ The top dressing is a good binding gravel which can be found within short distances along almost all of the roads which they are now building. A temporary track is run from each gravel pit along the side of the road until a mile or so on another pit is dug and the rails taken up and laid down from the new pit on. ”

“ The shape, or cross sections and drainage of the roads, are quite as defective as the general direction and inclinations; there has been no attention paid to constructing a good and solid foundation for the roadway; the materials, whether of gravel or stones, have seldom been sufficiently selected and arranged; and they lie so promiscuously upon the road as to render it inconvenient to travel upon, and promote its speedy destruction. The shape of the road, or cross section of the surface, is frequently hollow in the middle ”