Macadam road

“ CHAPTER XX. THE HOME STRETCH. During the afternoon the narrow kuruma road merges into a broad, newly made macadam, as fine a piece of road as I have seen the whole world round. Wonderful work has been done in grading it from the low-lying rice-fields, up, up, up, by the most gentle and even gradient, to where it seemingly terminates, far ahead between high rocky cliffs. The picture of charming houses and beautiful terraced gardens climbing to the very upper stories of the mountains here beggars description; one no longer marvels at what he has seen in the way of terraced mountains in China. ”

“ The road is winding and over a rolling country, but for the most part very good. The grades are not steep, there are some sandy spots, but none so soft as to materially interfere with good speed. There are many stretches of good gravel, and here and there a piece—a sample—of State road, perfectly laid macadam, with signs all along requesting persons not to drive in the centre of the highway,—this is to save the road from the hollows and ruts that horses and narrow-tired wagons invariably make, and in which the water stands, ultimately wearing the macadam through. ”

“ The only road that has no traffic in America is what is called a “dirt-road.” It isn’t “dirt” at all as we understand the word dirt in England. It is just Mother Earth, but these roads lead to nowhere, they end in a field on a farmhouse, as we discovered, and lost much time exploring and re-tracing. The macadam roads led down to the sea shore in places where crowds had gathered together to camp or picnic. That is peculiar about Americans, they love being together. I questioned Charlie: “Surely there must be lovely peaceful places unmarred by civilization?” ”

“ If the surface of a macadam road continues to be too muddy or dusty after the necessary drainage precautions have been followed, then the rock of which it is constructed [Pg 173] lacks sufficient hardness or toughness to meet the traffic to which it is subjected. If, on the contrary, the fine binding material of the surface is carried off by wind and rain and is not replaced by the wear of the coarser fragments, the surface stones will soon loosen and allow water to make its way freely to the foundation and bring about the destruction of the road. ”

“ The worst roads for walking are such as are commonly called the best; that is, macadam. A macadam pavement is a piece of masonry, wholly without elasticity, built for vehicles to roll over. To go a journey without a walking-stick much would be lost; indeed it would be folly. A stick is the fly-wheel of the engine. Something is needed to whack things with, little stones, wormy apples, and so forth, in the road. ”

“ 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. ”

“ NO one rock can be said to be a universally excellent road material. The climatic conditions vary so much in different localities, and the volume and character of traffic vary so much on different roads, that the properties necessary to meet all the requirements can be found in no one rock. If the best macadam road be desired, that material should be selected which best meets the conditions of the particular road for which it is intended. ”

“ An oily macadam road is more slippery even than a wet asphalt pavement.
The danger is greater from the fact that the road is crowned—that is, it rises in the center and slopes off on either side to a ditch. If you get off the crown on an oily road the machine is pretty sure to slide toward the ditch. In running over an oily road it is necessary to keep on the crown as much as possible and when one has to pass another vehicle, if he cares much for his safety, he had better slow down, or come to a stop, and let the other fellow worry about getting by. ”

“ The larger receipts enjoyed by the government since the customs collections were taken over by Americans in 1905, have caused a little improvement. Thus, a first-class macadam road has been constructed from Santo Domingo City to San Cristobal, a distance of sixteen miles; the old trail from Santo Domingo to San Pedro de Macoris has become available for automobiles; and the royal road in the Cibao from La Vega through Moca and Santiago to Monte Cristi, a distance of about 100 miles, formerly a horror, has been converted into a fair dirt road. ”

“ Macadam has no place in a city street, nor is it wise to lay it on the entire width of a roadway. It best serves its purpose when laid in a comparatively narrow strip, leaving the sides of the road unimproved, except for the formation of earth gutters, so that the surface
An Old Cedar Block Pavement. ”

“ Under the plan of Superintendent Riley the $50,000 will be spent in improving earth roads rather than trying to build roads of macadam because of the much greater use of the appropriation. Ten miles of good earth road may be built for the amount required to construct a single mile of macadam where gravel or other proper material for surfacing is obtainable. ”

“ Macadam, John Loudon, Scottish engineer, born at Ayr; inventor of the system of road-making which bears his name; he made his fortune as a merchant in New York, but spent it in road-making (1756-1836) .
Macaire, Robert, a noted criminal and assassin that figures in French plays; was convicted of a murder in trial by combat with a witness in the shape of the dog of the murdered man.
Macao, small island at the mouth of the Canton River, 100 m. S. of Canton, forming with Colovane and Taipa since 1557 a Portuguese station (50, mostly Chinese) ; is a very healthy port, though very hot ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bituminous macadam roads are ordinary macadam roads impenetrated with bituminous materials. When well made they are excellent roadways, and unless extremely heavy trucking comes upon them ought to prove satisfactory for medium to moderately heavy traffic. ”

“ The sensation of riding a small boat over "the gently-heaving waves of the murmuring sea" is, I think, one of the pleasures of life; and the next thing to it is riding a bicycle over the last three miles of the San Pablo Avenue macadam as I found it on that April morning.
The wave-like macadam abruptly terminates, and I find myself on a common dirt road. It is a fair road, however, and I have plenty of time to look about and admire whatever bits of scenery happen to come in view. There are few spots in the "Golden State" from which views of more or less beauty are not to be obtained ”

“ If a seventeenth-century MacAdam had arisen to preach the gospel of good roads, instead of repressive regulations for bad ones, he would still have had to overcome the difficulty of finding road-metal in districts far removed from stone ”

“ The Continent had made experiments similar to those of Macadam long before him, and what he effected over here was no more than an improvement, for it was not wholly novel.
The real point of Macadam in our road history is his intense devotion to his task. He was one of those men who, having seen clearly a principle which others have also seen, and which, indeed, should be obvious, so emphasizes it and represents it that he brings it into practice where other men would have abandoned it. ”

“ On May 22nd we were in the fields north of Kiaochow, some sixty miles by rail west from Tsingtao, but within the neutral zone extending thirty miles back from the high water line of the bay of the same name. Here the Germans had built a broad macadam road after the best European type but over it were passing the vehicles of forty centuries seen in Figs. ”

“ The best type of foundation and surface is a factor of quantity and class of traffic, and while as yet all engineers do not agree, the numerous experiments now being made may lead to standardization. Just as an example may be mentioned the change that has taken place in the effect of vehicles on waterbound macadam. Under horse-drawn, iron-wheeled wagons and carriages this was considered an ideal pavement. The horses’ shoes and the iron tires wore off of the stones a sufficient amount of dust to keep the road crust well cemented. The rubber tires of the automobile do not do that ”

“ Macadam's practice was this: to break the stones into angular fragments, so that a bed several inches in depth should be formed, the material best adapted for the purpose being fragments of granite, greenstone, or basalt; to watch the repairs of the road carefully during the process of consolidation, filling up the inequalities caused by the traffic passing over it, until a hard and level surface had been obtained. Thus made, the road would last for years without further attention. ”

“ Macadam insisted that no large stone should ever be employed in road-making, and, indeed, most modern road builders practice his principle that "small angular fragments are the cardinal requirements." As a general rule it has been stated that no stone larger than a walnut should be used for the surfacing of roads. ”

“ As defined by Macadam, a good road should be a hard, somewhat elastic surface to receive the wear of all kinds of traffic at every season of the year and during the greatest vicissitudes of weather, which shall also serve as a roof to that part of the road lying below. To use his own words, "A road ought to be considered as an artificial floor, forming a strong, smooth, solid surface, at once capable of carrying great weights, and over which carriages may pass without meeting any impediment." ”

“ The distance in a direct line, as determined by astronomical latitudes, is precisely 184 miles; and the ascent of the road is about 3730 feet greater than the elevation of the Pass of Mont Cenis, above the Lake of Como. There are two great causeways, paved with flat stones, and in some places covered with cemented gravel [115] , on Macadam’s plan. One of these lines of road runs through the broad and barren plain lying between the sea-coast and the chain of the Andes, whilst the other passes along the ridge of the Cordilleras. ”

“ The macadam and plank roads saw the Indian trail at its widest and best. The railway has had a tendency to undo even such advances over pioneer roads as came in the heyday of macadam and plank roads. We have been going backward since 1840 rather than forward. The writer has had long acquaintance with what was, in 1830, the first turnpike in Ohio—the Warren and Ashtabula Road; it was probably a far better route in 1830 than in 1900. By worrying the horse you can not make more than four miles an hour over many parts of it. ”

“ Mr. Macadam died poor, but, as he himself said, "a least an honest man." By his indefatigable exertions and his success as a road-maker, by greatly saving animal labour, facilitating commercial intercourse, and rendering travelling easy and expeditious, he entitled himself to the reputation of a public benefactor.
[Image] J. L. Macadam.
Owing to the mountainous nature of the country through which Telford's Carlisle and Glasgow road passes, the bridges are unusually numerous and of large dimensions. Thus, the Fiddler's Burn Bridge is of three arches, one of 150 and two of 105 feet span each. ”

“ Before Macadam and Telford appeared upon the scene, the office of road-surveyor was very generally looked down upon. No self-respecting engineer, before the time of these great men, condescended to have anything to do with roads. It is true that a forerunner of Macadam and Telford had appeared in Yorkshire in 1765, when “Blind Jack of Knaresborough” began the construction of the Boroughbridge and Harrogate road, the first of the long series for which he contracted; but he was not an official road-surveyor, nor by profession an engineer. He was, in fact, an engineer born and wholly untaught. ”

“ These naturally selected routes over the hills when they sought to avoid the bogs and quagmires of low-lying ground; and these routes, becoming in time the regular coach roads, left much to be desired in point of gradient and contour. Telford cut through the hills to obtain an easier ascent, and when Macadam had “made” the new road thus outlined it was as widely different from the original track it replaced as it is possible to conceive. “Nimrod,” writing in 1826, said, “Roads may be called the veins and arteries of a country through which channels every improvement circulates. ”

“ Macadam Roads.—Moderate first cost and when well compacted smooth but not slippery. They require new dust continually to keep the stones cemented together. Under rubber tires the dust is not worn off the stones and what little there is on the roadway is picked up and spread to the winds. If covered with tar or asphaltic oil the stones cement together and form excellent roadways under medium traffic, where there are no extremely heavy trucks to cut through the surface. Traffic up to 1200 vehicle-tons per day is accommodated well by these roads. ”

“ A pleasure park has been made, in which, and on some of the new macadam roads about the city, the foreigners and richer natives drive in wheeled vehicles. So long, however, as the roads are covered by the annual inundations and made unserviceable for months at a time, the use of carriages must be almost as restricted here as that of horses in Venice. A more regrettable innovation is that of dress-coats, starched linens, and to some extent dresses, in the fashionable circles of Siam. ”