The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-04-08
DIRT RO4DS.
Isaac b. Potter in The Century.

Isaac Ii. Potter in The Century.
By this term is meant those roads
which are formed of the natural soil
found in the line of the roadway
They are so common as to be almost
our only roads outside of town and
city limits, and will for many years be
used largely in country districts, and
especially on the lines of crossroads
which connect the main highways
Dirt roads, at their. best, are greatly
inferior to Macadam and Telford roads
in every essential of good highway :;
in durability, cost of maintenance,
drainage, tractive qualities, and, in
locations, in point of economy also.
But the dirt road is here, and the pub
lie hand must be directed to its treat
ment. The first and most important
thing necessary for the maintenance of
a dirt road may be stated in a single
word-drainage 1t is the one thing
nor neglected. Most dirt lis soluble,
ening influence of rain, and this pro-
cess is fastened in the dirt roads by
the passing of heavy wagons over the
wet surface. On every mile of road
way within the United States there
falls each year an average of $1,000
tons of water-a heavy, limpid fluid,
always directing itself to the nearest
outlet and seeking the lowest level.
Water is hard to confine and easy to
release, and yet, through sheer neglect
of the simplest principles of drainage,
water is the most active destroyer of
our country roads.
In providing for the drainage of
dirt road we should first consider the
material of which the roadway is com
posed. If a heavy, viscous clay pre-
dominates, the ordinary side-ditches
should be of good depth, and will even
then, in many cases, be inadequate
for thorough drainage without the adj
dition of u centre drain, running mid
way between, and parallel with the
side-ditches. The centre-drain should
of course be filled with loose irregu-
lar boulders, cobble stones, broken
bricks, Or similar filling, covering a
line or tiles of fascines at the bottom,
and should be connected with the
side-ditches by cross-drains carrying
the water outward from the centre
drain at proper intervals along the
roadway. These centre and cross
drains add somewhat to the cost of
the roadway, but, in most cases, con-
siderably more to its value, and should
be employed in all situations where
sand or gravel cannot be had to relieve
the heaviness and water-holding prop
critics of the clay. If gravel, sand, or
other porous material can be conven-
iently or cheaply obtained, the centre
and cross-drains may often be dispen-
sed with by mixing the gravel or sand
in plentiful quantities with the clay
4
possible porous and self-draining
surface-layer, which should not be
less than ten inches in depth and
should be laid on the rounded or slop-
ed subsoil so as to insure easy drain
age into the side-ditches
In locations where the prevailing
material is of a loose, sandy nature,
the difficulties of drainage are more
easily overcome, and side-ditches, if
found necessary at all, may be made
of moderate depth and left open, with
out mourning the risks and dangers of
travel that prevail where the deeper
Open bitches are used for draining
heavier soils. But, on the other hand,
the light and shifting nature of sandy
road-material destroys its value as a
surface layer for an earth roadway,
and its deficiency in this respect is
most easily remedied by the addition
of stronger and more tenacious sub
stance, such as stiff clay. When mix
ed with sand in proper proportions
(Which in each case depends upon the
nature of the clay and sand used, and
which can best be determined by ex-
periment), this composition affords
many advantages which make it SUI
periOr to a roadway composed of eth
er sand or clay when used alone The
sand serves to quicken the drainage
and to destroy the sticky, tenacious
qualities of the clay, while the clay
supplies the quality of cohesion in the
substance of the road-surface, counter
acting the shifting qualities of the
sand, and making the roadway more
easily packed and rolled, and more
likely to. retain: its proper grade and
slope. u
| ROLLING.
! Every day it is becoming more firm