Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-02-28
Thin Macadam Roads.

Mr.. James Owen, county engineer of
Essex County, n. j., under whose direc-
tion the admirable macadam roads about
Orange have been, sends the following
communication on their construction to
! The Engineering and Bnilding Record.
| obtais--s-------eersy'~ -esr--+~~~-~---.s-.-
Mr.. Owen, in the sixties, in the construc
| tion of park roads in Brooklyn. when the
| thickness of pavement was never less than
sixteen inches, laid on bed of l. inches
of sand, and was undoubtedly a Teiord
pavement. When, however, | had to ini
tiate in New Jersey more economical
system, | decided on depth of l. inches,
s inches Of pavement and inches of brok-
en- stone; between 80 and 40 miles were
constructed of this depth in the avenues
radiating from Newark through the Or
anges and Montclair They have stood
the wear and tear for sixteen years admir-
ably, of course with proper repairs, and IN
only two or three instances did thetounda-
tion ever blow up. These roads were county
roads, and really main arteries, but when
the local committees decided to build their
own roads, the divergence Of opinion and
lack of erystallized sentiment led to the
adoption of anything from to IL inches,
and the result has been in the same ratio
as the thickness The Oranges. -hs-t'-st" "@T
"a ~ = ;.---,s---.-s. Is,Iu lneir roads lo To
- :~~I..... In thickness and the uniformly
good condition of their roads is proverbial.
Bloomfield and Montclair have been build
ing theirs INCHES, and the difference is re-
markable; ruts quickly appear, holes are
common, and they look, as they are. cheap
roads. In these cases, however, there was
an attempt at "A pavement In other
townships, like Clinton, Milburn and
parts of South Orange. no attempt has
been made further than to spread to
inches of broken stone on the natural soil,
and the result shows that it is to certain
extent waste of money. The only ad-
vantage accruing in such a road is to keep
the wagons from getting mired but as
means of travel they do not reach to
very high order.
In the red sandstone formation Of New
jersey, in which all the roads dsmentoned are
laid, there are critical periods, especially
when the frost is coming ont, when it seems
absolutely necessary TO have foundation Of
some sort To keep the roads from breaking
mp, and only in specially favored localities
is IL possible to keep inch pavement
without rutting unless there is sharp
fall to the roads In the latest roads built
in this section at Bclleyille ! adopted a
rule of making the thickness of pavement
as follows For grades hatter than | per
cent. 10 inches; between | and per cent
inches; and over 4 per cent. inches.
This is the thinnest construction advisable
in this locality with any certainty of
good, permanent results, unless the roads |
are merely built as a preventive from mir
ing Instead Of for travel.
In conclusion | wish To deprecate as |
strongly as possible the idea of doing |
cheap work in road construction, as in my |
experience there il more money wasted in |
these attempts than is generally realized.
a community, if educated to "a proper
standard, will prefer To spend dollar
well than fifty cents in makcshifta, aud it
should be the duty Of every engineer To
guide them to that end.