The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-08-15


[From Good Roads Magazine.]
cost of bad roads and the benefit of
good roads, to demonstrate the interest
of cities and towns and the owners of
property of all kinds wherever situated
in the Improvement of country roads,
to develop the methods whereby all of
these interests may cooperate with
the farmers in the work of road i'm
provement, to discover what actual
and systematic road improvement is
being carried on in any part of the
United States and how the same or
modified methods may be applied to
other sections, to discover road mate
rails in various sections of the country,
to discuss new plans for road construc-
ton and encourage experiment in this
direction and finally to actually con-
struct sample roads.
Probably the most interesting phase
Of the work has been found, however,
in the construction of specimen roads
of various kinds in different parts Of
the country. Ordinarily three styles of
road have been represented in this eX-
detrimental road-a modern macadam,
a sand and a dirt road. OF these three
the macadam highway is the most in
teresting from the point of construc-
ton. After uniform grade has been
secured by the use of wheeled scrap
ers, drag scrapers and plows and pos
sibly road graders as well there are
placed upon this foundation three sep
arate layers of the best quality Of
stone that is procurable in the vicinity.
The foundation course, which is about
five inches in thickness and made up
of two and half inch stone, is thor
oughly rolled before the second course,
composed of one and half inch stone,
is put on, and this layer in turn is
sprinkled and rolled before the surface
layer, or binder" as 1t is commonly
called, consisting of three-quarter inch
stone and dust, is put in place
The sand road is formed by placing
six inches of river sand on a bed of
natural clay, neither the bed nor the
surface of the road being rolled. The
dirt road is made by grading in the
usual manner. AS a rule neither of
these latter classes of highways is con-
structed save to demonstrate the supe-
riority of the macadam road. Consid-
cradle attention has been given to the
construction of steel track wagon
roads, decidedly the most novel type of
highway yet introduced in any coun-
try. The steel road might be compared
to a street car track of modified design,
and the plan for it's utilization was
doubtless suggested by the well known
tendency of teamsters to make use of
urban and interurban trolley and cable
lines on highways where locomotion
would otherwise be difficult.
The steel track wagon road consists
of two parallel lines of steel plates OF
rails each eight inches in width and
not supported on wooden crossties, but
simply made solid in the road by
fianges projecting into the concrete of
the roadbed. The rails are accurately
spaced so as to receive the wheels of
all vehicles of standard gauge without
regard to the width of tire, and each
plate or rail is fitted with fange on
bhN lliIlCl SIdC " II NNSIlb " liSNAf' AIOli
easily leaving the tracks Unique roads
of this type have been constructed in
half a dozen different states, and in
some instances the records made upon
them have been little short of marvel
Gus. In one instance a load of eleven
tons which required twenty horses for
it's movement over an ordinary road
was readily drawn along the steel
track by single horse This load was
twenty-five times the weight of the an
imal, but at Ames, Ia, recently horse
started and moved on a steel track
highway load fifty times the weight
of the animal. 1t may be noted that
the cost of the steel track roads has
ranged from $1,000 to $500 mile,
according to the original condition Of
tie roadbed. IL -scr-att'