, 1884-10-11

ncernlng public Roads in St. Croix, and upon confer
GO with the Colonial Council, the following Regulations
hereby issued.
10 keep up good roads it is necessary to provide for
effective drainage, to use good materials for repairing,
q to carry out the repairs by right methods.
4. The Securing Of good Drainage.
l" In order to facilitate the drainage the surface both of the
mainroads and the byroads should be slightly arched,
ana 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 byroads 2 to 8 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 a
hill side and having a steep slope on one side. In this
case the whole roadway should incline a little inwardS,
a!oh9 the lnnermoSt side there should be a ditch for
carrying OFT the water, on the other hand no ditch is in
such case required on the outer side of the road.
z. 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 /, unless they are cut out
The bitches ought to have a fall l~engthwiSe towards the
natural lines Of drainage of the land, the fall ought to fol-
low the fall Of the road itself, but in level stretches of
road the ditch should have an Independent fall of about l
foot to 800 feet Tor l inch in % feet)
Where the natural lines of drainage cross the roads there
should be, unless the circumstances require a bridge,
eItner a stone drain under the road or a 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 IF sufi-
cIent 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 will become
very difficult and costly, if not impossible.
For constructing the particular works mentioned no
rules can here be given, they ought in each individual
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 it,which as a rule is best done by means of
q stone drain.
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 Materials.
!. The roadway, that is to say the whole breadth of the road
between the bitches, ought to be covered with a sufficient
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
lected, the under surface OH which the structure is to be
lad IS often rugged and uneven. First of all in 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 III its 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 wearand-tear, which covering i'll
the case OF the betterkept roads can be laid down without
making any such SubStructure.
Forth wear and tear layer over the whole breadth of the
road on the roads Of lesser Importance, as well as on little
used by-roadS, ordinary sharp hill gravel may be used and
fragments of ~decOmposing 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 byroads,
must be formed as far as possible of a layer of natural or
artlhclally 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 to5
inches thick the fragments used at the bottom must have
a thickness up to 2 to . inches, but it is then necessary
that they should be covered by smaller fragments, the
part of the layer which comes into contact with the vehi-
Giles should consist only of fragments whose greatest thick
ness does rot exceed Il inches. The use of larger pieces
is destructive alike to the roads and to the vehicles.
1t is advantageous to mix the above named sharp mate
rails a little, but not too much, with a binding medium.
such as fragments of limestone or bricks, decomposing
stone can also be used for this purpose on the other hand
limestone should not, where it can be avoided, be used y
alone on roads carrying much traffic, on account of the
dlsagreeable 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 OH
the roads, it ought, however, never to be less than 8 in
CheS,