The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-06-10
the SCIENCE OF ROAD MAKING.
[By e. c. Jordan, Civil Engineer

80 VIZ ooooitiOn TO our own doors
that our roads are among the worst in the
world Surely the enormous amounts ex-
pended annually should save us from such a
reputation. That we are not libeleo in this
matter by unsympathetic foreigners. Ameri-
cans who have whirled over miles of smooth.
nara and nearly perfect roads in foreign
lands, can attest. do not refer to city roads
alone, but to village roads and country roads
through sections not even as thickly settled
DIS our own. When one has seen such re-
suits ana observed the methods pursued in
maintaining them, he is surprised that Yam
kee thrift has not adopted, or perhaps origi-
mated better ones. We are called labor saw
ing inventors but greater wastefulness or
more entire disregard of methods by which
we can get a fair return for money ex-
pended, cannot be found than in our road
making and maintenance. The Engineering
NEWS New, Few years ago published in full an
making" for which Clemens Herschel, civil
engineer, received the prize offered by the
state Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts.
a little later they published an article by E.
in and about S New york City
Within the last few months the Engineering
and Building Record has published a series
of prize treaties on Matchmaking. They are
practical descriptions Of successful road
making as pursued by various engineers. An
earlier treatise by Gillespie. published as far
back as lS47, seems to contain almost all
that has recently been said and is literally
quoted from in these later writings which /
have mentioned. Thus you may see that the
awakening to a live interest in the subject
has been slow, but it is surely coming and
Portland and vicinity | hope can be per-
suaded to open at least one eye.
In laying out new highways town officers
and county commissioners rarely take into
consideration the question of how much can
pc expended properly In cutting down hill
TO an easy grade. or how far around the hill
one can proftably go to avoid going over it.
Will make home illustration of what ex-
periments actually prove.
Load wagon or horse car with all the
weight That horse can draw on the level
road or track at the Union Station on Con-
gress street; for the purpose of illustration
call 1t twenty persons. Ii you start up a hill
Using two feet in a hundred. two people
must get off if the hill is three in hundred
seven people must get off, if ga in hun
dIed, which is about the grade of Congress
street hill twelve people must get off that
Is, load representing less than one half the
drawing capacity of the horse on level
ground is the amount that he can pull up
congress street hill: You may seemingly
remedy this by extra horses but it is de-
clded item in the expense account In prac-
tical operations only three-four lbs of load is
put on, and the rest is taken out of the horse
by calling on him for extra exertion; this he
cannot respond to for the whole day or on a
long slope like Congress street hill, though
he may for shorter distances.
From the Union Station to the junction of
Grove and Congress streets the rise is nearly
100 feet; from Grove street to the Preble
House the fall is about ~ feet, and we are
daily Illustrating the famous couplet: "The
King. OF France. with forty thousand men
marched up hill, and then-marched do,pn
again."
There is an actual profit or income from
the expenditure necessary to avoid large
part OF the evil OF Congress street hill, and it
can and should be done. The proposed new
street from the Union Station Square to con-
meet with Portland street near the Aims
house entrance, and thence by Portland and
treble streets to Monument Square, will be
ShCTter Dy I5o Ieet than by Congress street,
and Will make only total rise of So feet.
The great cost of lifting thousands of tons
OF freight annually "a feet high the differ
ence between the two grades would be elm
mated by the new route, and the saving of
time In which one could drive over it DE
cause one could easily drive at nearly full
speed both ways) would give result in the
aggregate worth great deal of money.
Inc importance OF easy grades on roads is
fully recognized where thought has been
given to the subject, but that we have been
without saying. recall with bitterness the
disregard of the pains and labor that went
TO In locating an important county road,
where had taken care to fit it to side hills
and to cross the lowest SUBMITS and get the
easiest grades, making it a road full of gen.
tie curves that had a scientific reason in
them; road that had unity from beginning
to end. The commissioners came on and lis
tened to the individual pleading that cow pas
lures should be placed on straight lines (aI-
m xuC fhnrf ,caIsro =
easy roads that they trayeled) and proceeded
to straighten my road down valleys and up
hills until its practical utility was DESTROYED
and the line actually increased in length.
Whs enlY t tSg Gba that @ers i6ey Could
see the crooks, they followed contentedly
over an easy graded path. A farmer on a
good road ten miles from a town frequently
makes much greater profit than his neigh
Dor, who is much nearer, on poor road that
c0mpels him to haul only half load
Inc awakening in road making is also very
largely in regard to its construction and sur
face; How not to do it has been very per-
fectly illustrated in Portland. / have conf
IDENTIFY predicted the results when have
year by year seen reckless expenditures on
our highways, and thousands of dollars
worth Of excellent material trif1ed with in
attempting to make road bed. / have
noted the utter disregard of experience In
the matter, and l have sought carefully
without giving offense to have certain
changes made, but it availed nothing: the
big stones were rolled into the foundation
of the streets. regardless of their proper size
or place, and then surfaced with broken
stone without uniformity, and again sur
faced with the mud made from rotten stone.
A years wear and the action of frost devel-
oped holes and uneven surfaces inevitable.
OF course, under such system-or lack of
system.
do not propose in this article to take up
your space In describing exact methods Of
work. The rules are easily Obtainable else
where. But while this matter of asphalt
pavement is up for discussion | would like to
add word of approval as to the trial that is
to be made of it. If the solution of the prob
lem has been wrought out of giving us per-
nlGnent asphalt pavement in the climate of
Portland where extremes of temperature are
900 below zero and 100 above, then we are to
be congratulated. 1t has proved itself else
where to be the best of pavements under
certain conditions of traffic and climate, but
1t has hitherto at least been viewed with
doubt in climates like our own. Let us try
the experiment conservatively; if it is sue
cessful we thall obtain a noiseless pavement.
OF great sanitary value which for purposes of
traffic is unexcelled. Tie following state
ment illustrates the point.
e. I" A given load that can just be drawn nv
one horse on a level iron track will need the
power Of 1s on asphalt, and will need 81
horses on our best granite block pavement
seven horses on good cobble stones, twenty
on ordinary earth roads and forty on a sandy
road" These are the results of actual ex.
periments and they show the enormous
value of a good surface on our highways,
This goes to prove that asphalt gives the
best results of anything that has vet been
used for pavement purposes, but certain
mixtures that have given sufficient hardness
under the heat of a summer sun at 1902. have
become brittle at 200 below zero, IL is
claimed that this difficulty has been over
come. We shall see!
The word macadam is now used as a gene
ric term for broken stone roads, although
the method most In vogue with us in build
ing them, especially on road beds not under
drained, is nearer what is technically known
as the Telford road. The methods that give
the best result are we'll understood by those
who give an examination and study of the
subject. The reason why we in Portland
and notably In Deering on Forest avenue get
so poor return for the money expended is
because OF the system that puts the con-
:struction and maintenance of our highways
In the hands OF men who have had no special
training and who have made no study of the
subject. We may have had street commits
sioners who handled a crew of men well and
had certain general ideas upon the sub
Ject; but as to details, the aggregation
OF which make the perfect work, /
have yet to see these carried out bv
any one. A city no larger than Portland
should make its city engineer the authority
upon its public works Gf it has no Board of
Public Works.; he should especially have
charge of street and sewer construction
Inc education and training of an engineer