Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-09-20
NEW IDEAS IN ROADS.
CHANGE SUGGESTED IN REPAIR or
MACADAM HIGHWAYS.

Constant Renewal to Give Way to
Resurfncing Mt From Three to Five
Yenrs-Cost of maintenance Reduc-
ed-Use of Machinery.
1t Is commonly said and thought that
In the construction of macadam roads
there Is nothing new under the sun.
All the American engineer can do Is
to copy the precedents and practice Of
the English and French road builders.
Our iconocastic contributor Mr.. Gill
lette, however, reports an interesting
record of macadam resurfacing which
seems to put the matter of macadam
road repair in quite a different light,
says Engineering News. The old, or
thodoX method of maintaining a mac
adam road is to keep continuously az
1t. Writers of textbooks on road con-
struction invariably urge that the road
should be maintained by constant sur
veillance. In fact, the ideal plan. ac-
cording to them, is to have a man con-
tnually going over the roads of a
given district, mending a low place
here and filling a rut there, taking the
provcrbial stitch in time that is sup
posed to save nine. Now, whatever ex-
perience in Europe may be, results here
show that this method of making re-
pairs is expensive. A man working in
this way must work with little super
vision, and his work will be apt to lack
in both quantity and quality.
In place of this system of road repair
Mr.. Gillette proposes that the road be
left to wear down for perhaps three to
five years, depending on the amount Of
traffic and the condition which the road
attains. Then put on a heavy steam
roller, with picks, and rcsurface a good
long stretch at one time, adding new
material if necessary. Working in this
manner with efficient machinery Mr..
Gillette has resurfaced n 1G foot road
at q cost of little more than $500 per
mile. If a road will wear five years
between surfacings, this means an an
nual expense for maintenance Of only
SEQ per year mot counting the cost of
new stone).
OF course, however, Mr.. Gillette does
not go to the extreme of proposing to
make no repairs whatever between sur
facings. Minor repairs, such as filling
hollows, mending travelling shoulders
filling next to crosswalks and manhole
covers, will do much to promote the
comfort of those that use the road and
cost comparatively little. 1t is the al
most universal custom of doing repair
work in small patches which Mr.. Gill
lette suggests to be an error, and he
seems to have common sense on his
side.
The greatest obstacle to the extensive
construction of hard roads in this coun-
! try Is unquestionably the cost of their
maintenance. Foreign practice, as well
as most Of the experience that has thus
far accumulated in this country, indi
Gates that macadam roads when re
paired according to orthodox methods
are very expensive to keep in order
) If by the substitution of machinery fol
/ hand labor and by the systematic re
newal of the surface in long stretches
instead Of in small hit or miss patches
the cost of maintaining macaIlam roads
can be largely reduced, the fact Is OF
the greatest importance.
A comment which may be made upon
this proposal is that it is doubtless
more directly applicable to roads thar
to streets. A long stretch of country
road will wear quite evenly and may
all be repaired at one time. On city
streets macadam is commonly laid II
short stretches, and different blocks
are subjected to very different amounts
Of wear. The necessity for making re
pairs in small patches, therefore, ex
lists here, as 1t does not on a country
road. Even here, however, 1t Is we'll tC
bear in mind that machine work 1.
cheaper than hand work and that the
larger the job in hand the more cheap
ly will the machines do their work.