Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-31

FIRST requisite of a good road is efficient
drainage
DRAINAGE DOES NOT CONSIST
in digging bitches four to SIX feet deep
along road, A scientific scratch in the
proper place may be more effectual than
a ditch four feet deep run by the eye OF
an amateur road-naker. I viii again
repeat that the first and absolutely nee
essary requirement OF good road is eff
oient drainage. The road must not be
allowed 10 get soddened with water.
Fortunately, drainage costs but
little when devised by compe-
tent engineer. As rule, proper
drainage can be effected by trenches, the
earth from which would just suffice TO
raise the road-bed from six inches to
foot. The land taken mp FOR a county
road should not be less than sixty feet il
width, 10 allow for drainage, trenches,
etc, and the width of the made road
way should be twenty-six feet, raised
not less than six inches above the ground.
This twenty-Six feet should be made
up as follows: Eighteen feet of hard
central surface, metaled with broken
stone or gravel, with four feet of an uu-
metaled earthern bernie on each side of
the hard macadamized central surface.
The side slopes of embarked roads to be,
as \ general rule, J, feet horizontal to
foot vertical. In cuttings the slopes to
be according 20 the tenacity or hardness
of the material cut through, varying
from = to I in ordinary soil, TO almost
a perpendicular in rock. The width of
roadway given abOve-eighteen feet and
four feet side berme-is wide enough
for all practicable purposes. More than
this
IS A MERE WASTE or MONEY.
4 roadway of greater width may be
necessary in Bourbon county, Ky, but
not in sober, temperance-loving Texas.
1t would be better 20 expend the extra
money in keeping the width mention in
good repair, than wasting it on an un-
necessary width Of twenty-five or more
feet. / write from the experience of the
commerce of country hay-
ing population 70 the square
mile sixteen times that of
Texas, and where the government deems
it as much part of its duty to and and
facilitate the internal commerce of the
country by good roads as it deems it q
part of its functions to protect the per-
sOnal rights and property Of its citizens
by the just administration of law and
justice. As have said the width of the
macadamized or prepared hard surface of
the road should be eighteen feet, metaled
with either broken stone or gravel,
according to the local sup
ply. If of broken stone it should
be the hardest rock locally
procurable, broken to pass through an
inch and half diameter ring. The thick
ness of the layer of broken stone or
gravel should be, as a general rule, four
and half inches at the edges, and six and
a half inches at the center. If the ma
teTial used be broken stone it must be
laid in one layer, but if of gravel it must
be laid in two layers, the first layer be-
ing partly consolidated before the second
is laid on, the consolidation to be effected
by iron rollers drawn by horses.
IN EXCEPTIONAL CASES
steam rollers might be used, but they
would not be economical away from the
immediate vicinity of a city; the iron
rollers to be six and a half feet long.
weighing two tons, and so constructed as
to weigh nearly double that weight when
filed with earth; the consolidation to
be in part done by the untitled
roller and completed by it when
filled. The surface of the completed
road should have Il Gambler from the cen
ter to the sides of one inch TO four aud
half feet. There is no necessity what
ever for tibet hree layers OF six inches each
of fiat rock, crushed stone and gravel
mentioned in the issue Of the Statesman
of the 1st inst. The cost of three such
layer construction is there said to be
S2640 per mile. No contractor in the state
would undertake such work under
$4,000 per mile The cost IS an
easy calculation, and have made it with
the result that it would not be under
$4,000. However, no such expensive con-
struction is necessary. My appeal is to
the thousands and thousands of miles OF
the finest country roads in the world con-
structed as I have described. The aver
age cost of such road would be S2100 per
mile, a minimum of $1,000 and maximum
$4,000 1t is, however, not enough to
construct a road well in the first in
stance; it is also necessary to keep it in
repair. The repairs viii, of course, vary
with the amount of traffic The cost per
mile per annun will vary from 500 for
the more remote to as much as $500 for
the last couple of miles leading into tho
city. The partial renewal of the surface
will also be necessary every four or FIVE
years.