The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1902-08-01
HIGHWAY BUILDING,
MAURICE o. ELDRIDGE ONTHE DRAIN
AGE OF ROADS.

II
Remedy For Freezing.
Straight roads are best, other things
Delng equal, but in hilly countries
stralghtness should always be sacri-
need to reduce grades, says Maurice o.
Eldrldge, assistant director Of public
road inquiries. Hilly roads often be-
come covered with ice or slippery soil,
making them very difficult to ascend
with loaded vehicles as well as danger
Gus to descend. Water rushes down
tnem during rainy weather at such a
rate as to wash great gaps along their
sldes or to carry the surface material
away. AS the grade increases in steep
ness either the load has to be diminish
ed in proportion or additional horse
power used.
Most roadbuilders prefer per cent
grades to those of per cent where
tney can be secured without additional
expense, but in some places it is neces-
sary for various reasons to increase
the grades to per cent. With the ex-
ception of mountainous regions, where
sleeper grades are often unavoidable,
the aim should be, on all public high
ways which are travelled by heavily
loaded vehicles, to keep the grade
down to 3 or 4 per cent and never let
it exceed per cent. If the road must
be constructed out of the materials
over which it passes it is often possi-
BILE to select a route where the soil is
better adapted for the purpose than
that found where first located For
instance, soils adjacent to the beds of
streams or in mOrasses and swamps,
being close and pervious, are very diff
cult to surface and subdrain, but
routes over such ground can often be
avoided by locating the road upon
higher ground, where the natural
drainage is better.
Another consideration in choosing
the line of travel is that roads on
slopes having a southern or western
exposure can be much more satisfacto-
rily and economically maintained than
those located on eastern or northern
slopes. Water is the most destructive
agent to road, and yet if a few sim
pie principles are followed it can be
easily dealt with. Earth is more sus-
ceptible to the action of water and
more easily dissolved and moved by it
than any other road material, and for
this reason too much attention can
hardly be given to the drainage of
roads. Drainage alone will often
change a bad road into a good one,
while, on the other hand, the best
road may quickly go to ruin for lack
-of drainage.
TO drain road surface properly wa
ter should be got rid of before it gains
force or headway or has time to dam
age the road. 1t is just as economical
and far more practical for the road
builder to put in four or five twelve
inch culverts at such points as may be
found necessary in a mile of roadway
as it is to carry the water along the
higher side of the road a mile or more
and be compelled to deliver it in a
twenty-four inch culvert. When water
is permitted to remain in the fOunda-
ton of a road through the winter, it
freezes, expands and loosens the soil.
One hundred volumes of water make
when frozen 100 volumes of ice. When
the warm spring weather comes, this
ice melts, and as there is no place for
the water to go the ruts in the springy
soil become deeper and deeper until
wagons often sink to their hubs and
horses founder laboriously through the
resulting slough. The remedy, there
fore, is to get rid of the water in the
foundation Of the road, and get rid. Of
it before it has time to soften the sub
structure or freeze. For this purpose it
is advisable to construct horizontal
drains under the roadway, which
should empty into the open drains or
the natural water courses at frequent
intervals.
After the drains have been carefully
laid. the ditch should be half filed
with rough, broken stones or, if no
stones are available, with broken brick
bats, coarse sand, gravel. cinders or
some other imperishable material. A
little hay, sod or brush packed around
the tile to prevent silt from washing in
and clogging the drains will be useful.
The ditch can then be tamped full Of
firm earth. Care should be exercised
in keeping the drains open and unob-
structed at outlets. Underdratns are
useless unless outlets are provided, for
IL the outlet is obstructed the water is
kept standing in the drains until it
sOaks In and softens the foundation.
Where the road is built on steep
grade some provision should be made
to prevent the washing of the cutters
into deep gullies. This can be done by
paving the bottoms and sides of the
cutters with bricks or field stones. In
order to make the flow as small as pos
sible in side bitches it is often advisa-
BILE to construct frequent outlets into
the adjacent fields or streams, or, if
possible, to lay underground pipes or
blind drains with screened openings
into side bitches at frequent intervals.
The size of side bitches should depend
upon the amount Of water they are ex-
pected to carry.
The Doe and the Jackdaw.
In Savernake forest once witnessed
O very pretty little scene. I noticed a
doe lying down by herself In grassy
hollow and as T n9SSad her at a dis