Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-23
DISTRICT COUNTRY ROADS.


To the Editor OF The Evening Star.
beg to call attention, through your valuable
columns. to the shameful condition of the pub
lie roads Of the District beyond the city limits
and to urge that portion of the community
which has been in the habit of enjoying the
beautiful drives In the vicinity of city to join
me in calling the attention of the persons in our
District government who have authority in
! this matter to investigate the bad practice
which now prevails In regard to road making
in the District While the pavements within
the city limits are in general admirably cared
for and afford its inhabitants q Just cause Of
pride, the utmost ignorance is shown in regard
to the proper manner of mending our country
roads. Ii is well known that the soil OF this
part Of the United States contains so much clay
that the unmacadamiZed or dirt roads" as
they are generally called, become almost i'm
passable in seasons Of long continued rain.
The clayey subsoil does not allow the water to
drain off, and the passage Of vehicles over the
mixture of clay and standing water after time
makes sticky mixture, sort Of mud pie,
whose depth increases with the amount of travel.
The properly macadamized road consists of a
foundation OF broken stone, coarser at the bot
tom and finer on the surface, which, when
properly settled and rolled down. forms nat
arai concrete arch across the roadway, through
which surface water drains and which affords
a smooth surface to drive upon, alike free from
mud in wet weather and dust in dry times, and
which. if properly mended, will last indef-
nitely. Most of the District roads have such q
foundation, and when this has been made, as in
the case OF the Conduit and other roads, of
broken quartz and is mended with the same
material finely broken it produces a roadway
that cannot be excelled. The gneiss, OF which
great quantities are lying at hand ut the mouths
OF the various openings through which our two
million-dollar tunnel was excavated. is a good
md xrhn 1raa aad
with broken quartz makes an almost equally
good road, but when used alone grinds up into
a clayey material that is both muddy and
dusty. Whatever stone is used. however. it is
essential that 1t should be in broken angular
fragments OF fairly uniform size. Rounded
water-worn stones will never pack and il the
fragments are OF unequal size the larger stones
project above the surface as the rest of the
road settles down and cause jolting and even
serious mi Jury to vehicles passing over them.
SOIL and clayey gravel are the worst materials
that can be used for road making and dressing.
The present mending Of our District roads,
as far as my observations show, ia conducted
after two methods. One consists in spreading
loosely coating Of broken stone of unequal
size, often large enough to constitute kind of
rip-rap. and leaving it without rolling or top
dressing for passing vehicles to wear down.
This method is cruel to horses, destructive to
fine vehicles and results finally in leaving the
road surface more uneven than it was before the
dressing. This would have been avoided by
proper rolling and settling, and the final ex-
pense of the District would have been less to
say nothing of the destructive wear to vehicles
Obliged to pass over it.
The second and most general method of
mending is the spreading of several inches of
very ciayey gravel loosely over the surface Of
the road. This Is the cheap method employed
on county roads, which is only q shade better
than mending with soil alone, and makes only
a temporary Improvement. The rounded
stones In the gravel ne yer pack, the clayey ma
terial in dry times becomes fine Invaluable
dust, and in wet weather, if there is any con-
siderable travel over the road, makes sticky
mud pie extending down to the stone founds-
ton. The defects of this method have been
abundantly illustrated during tina past winter.
when the heavy teams carrying material for
the various suburban improvements have
plugged this superficial dressing of cIayey
gravel into mass OF plastic and sometimes
liquid mud. nearly knee deep. Woodley Lane
once faYorite drive, is good illustration OF
this At the time Of Admiral Portcrs funeral
the road to Arlington, which had been thus
''mended,' could only be rendered fit for the
procession to pass over by scraping off the six
inch layer of soft mud and leaving the original
maeadam foundation exposed. Since dry
weather has set i'll the roads thus dressed are
covered with fine dust. which renders them
more disagreeable TO drive over in some re-
spects than in their muddy condition.
The quality OF country roads in America is in
general far inferior to that of European coun-
tries and it can be demonstrated that the ex-
pense of keeping them in good order. great
though it seems to those who have been used
to the slovenly methods in vogue generally, is
an economy in the end, when the ease Of haul
Ing and greater attractiveness given to the sur
rounding country are considered. In New York
a State Road improvement Association has been
organized for the purpose of impressing this
truth upon the public mind One cannot
Imagine that the army engineers associated
with the District government are ignorant Of
the advantages of properly macadamized roads.
and we must, therefore. assume that the abuses
mentioned above arise from the care of coun-
try roads being left in the hands of Ignorant
subordinates withoutproper supervision. Many
OF us know that they did not exist few years
since VIAToR.