, 1884-10-08
Translation
Regulations
for keeping IN repair the Public Roads
an ST. Cr0lr.

corning public Roads in ST. Croix, and upon confer
e with the Colonial Council, the following Regulations
hereby issued.
To keep up good roads it is necessary to provide for
effective drainage, to use good materials for repairing,
to carry out the repairs by right methods.
Il. The Securing Of good Drainage.
!. In order to facilitate the drainage the surface both of the
mainroads and the byroads should be slightly arched,
and there should be a ditch on each side. AS a general
rule, the roadway should be, in the main-rOads 3 to 4 in
ches, in tho by-roads 3 to 3 inches higher in the middle
than at the inner edge of the ditch. An exception, how
ever, must be made in the case of a road passing along 8
hill side and having a steep slope on one side. In this
case the whole roadway should incline a little lnWards,
and along the innermost side there should be a ditch for
carrying off the water, on the other hand no ditch is IN
such case required on the outer side OF the road.
The dimensions of the bitches along the roadSides should
be so proportional that they can carry off the water; the
breadth at the bottom should be at least l foot. The sides
of the bitches should be so sloped that they can without
difficulty preserve their contour, which IN general requires
a slope in the proportion Of l to 1, unless they are cut out
in a rocky bottom, in which case the sides may be sleeper.
The bitches ought to have a fall l~engthwiSe towards the
natural lines of drainage OF the land, the fall ought to FOL,
road the ditch should have an independent fall OF about L
foot to 300 feet Tor / inch i'll 20 feet.
Where the natural lines of drainage cross the roads there
should be, unless the circumstances require a bridge,
either a stone drain under the road or 4 paved water
course over the roadway itself.
1t IS OF the greatest Importance that the channels refer
red to, whether under or over the road, should be Of Suth-
cent dimensions to carry off the largest quaint ity of water
that can be expected to come through them, as otherwise
the keeping up of the road at these places VIII oecom"
very difficult and costly, if not impossible.
For constructing the particular works mentioned no
."l9S ca here be given, they ought IN each liildIVldnai
case to be carried OUT under proper technical guidance and
with due regard to the local circumstances.
Should the natural line of drainage lie on one side Of the
road only the ditch on the other side should be put in
connection with (which as a rule is best done by meanso Of
q stone drain.
4. The bitches ought never to be interrupted by roadways
passing over them, unless the roadway has a drain through
1t OF sufficient size to carry away the water.
b. ROad AQterl0(S.
The roadway, that is to say the whole breadth Of the road
Dpt VVppO h Jjt0laS OIJmItt r. hA nDNAVAl with n S1Hb nimOt
layer OF good road material.
When the roadway has to be built up afresh, so to say,
on account Of the repairs having been for a long while neg
iiected, the under surface on which the structure is to be
laid is often rugged and uneven. First of all i'll such
cases the larger holes must be filled up with small pieces
of hard stone of the kinds mentioned further on and
afterwards an even surface may be produced by covering
the road in it's whole breadth with a layer Of clay we'll
mixed with gravel or sharp sand. In this way a sub.
structure is formed for the reception OF the covering which
is to sustain the actual wear.and-tear, which covering i'll
the case of the b~etter-kept roads can be laid down without
making any such Sub-structure.
Forthe wear and arlayer over the whole breadth of the
road on the roads of lesser Importance, as well as on little
used byrOads, ordinary sharp hill gravel may be used and
fragments of dec0mpOslng rocks and the like, also, though
less desirable, shore gravel for the more important roads,
on the other hand, both main roads and much used by
roads, the driving way itself, to a breadth OF at least IA
feet for main roads and of at least 10 feet for by-rOads,
must be formed as far as possible of a layer OF natural or
artlhclaly broken fragments of granite or some other hard
kind of stone. 1t is important that the fragments should
not be too large; IN a layer Of stones which is made 4 to
inches timex the fragments used at the bottom must nave
a thickness up to 2 to . inches, but it is then necessary
tnat they should be covered by smaller fragments, the
part of the layer which comes into contact with the vehi-
cleS should consist only of fragments whose greatest thick
ness does lot exceed inches. The use of larger pieces
iSdestructive alike to the roads and to the vehicles.
1t is advantageous to mix the ahOve-named sharp mate
rails a little, but not too much, with a binding medium,
such as fragments of limestone or bricks, decOmpOSng
stone can also be used for this purpose on the other hand
limestone should not, where it can be avoided, be used
alone on roads carrying much traffic, on account of the
diSagreeable dust which is thereby caused. The thickness
which should be given to the wear and tear layer depends
upon the amount of wear and tear which takes place on
the roads, it ought, however, never to be less than 8 in
ohnS