Omaha daily bee., 1897-05-03
ROAD MAKING EXPERIMENTS
Board of Supervisors Interested in
Improving Country Highways,
SYSTEMATIC PLAN is BEING PURSUED
Grading Machine that Forms and
Packs the Earth ut work Nenr
Avoca-CoIonct Bnkcr on
the Subject.

The Board Of County Supervisors is taking
a great deal OF interest In the experiments of
ro%admaking that are now under way. At
the last session of the board in April a reeo-
luton was passed organizing the board as a
committee OF the whole to investigate the
problem of good road making and report at
the next meeting. and each member has been
giving the subject all of the attention posi-
BILE since then. Colonel w. f. Baker, how
ever, has had the most time and has given
the matter the greatest amount of patient
consideration. The resolution Of the board
to expend all of the 1 mill general road tax
under the direction OF the board, instead Of
apportioning 1t to the townships as has been
done heretofore, will give the board a fund
of Sti, 900 this year, and with the balance
on hand in the fund from last years taxes, it
will have not less than 100000 to use in
the experiment of making permanent high
ways. In addition to the / mill general
levy for the road fund, the board levles g
4-mill tax for township purposes, and this
brings in ordinarily about $4,000 a year.
The township levy is all expended under the
direction Of the township trustees, and the
plan of the board now is to expend the l-mill
levy in making one straight highway across
the county and induce the townships through
which 1t passes. to expend the greater part
OF their leVleS In making ldleTdl ioduS Nou
Meeting with 1t and on the same general
plan followed by the supervisors.
The first bit of experimental work is now
under way near Avoca, in the extreme eastern
end of tho county. The new $1,000 road
grader Is being uesd. This machine eX-
cavates the earth from the sides of the coun-
try lanes and piles it up in the center of the
roadway. The loose earth is pulverized by
an immense harrow as fast as the elevator
grader drops 1t in the road. The harrow is
followed by a four-ton iron roller, drawn by
four horses. This roller packs the loose
earth into a firm mass. The process goes
on until the roadway has been raised by the
deposit of two feet of earth, which has be-
come remarkably rigid under the repeated
narrowing ard rolling. The bitches from
which the earth is eXcavated by the grader
are sunk to a depth of a trifle over two
feet, so that the surface OF the road Is more
than four feet above the bottoms of the
bitches which carry away the water.
The half a mile OF roadway that was prac-
tically completed near Avoca on Saturday
was so firm that the heaviest teams and
wagons did not leave a track. The road is
built with a browning surface that Will Per
init the water to run off without soaking
into the ground. If this plan gives any
promise of insuring permanent roads. 1t will
be followed until all of the main high Ways
in the county are thus constructed. The sur
faces of the main roads leading into the
city will be covered with some sort Of ma
cadam.
Speaking on the subject of permanent and
good highways Colonel Baker said: ITS a
serious reflection upon the intelligence of
cur people when we look at our public high
ways and then recall the fact that we spend
nearly $50, 900 every year in the effort 20 keep
them in passable order. This amount of
money during the fifty years that this strange
extravaganza has been going on would have
paved with everlasting granite every public
highway in the county"