The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1904-01-01

| scientific construction of Il highway
involves location, both from the stand
point of utility and of beauty, proper
drainage of the road strip, grading
and gradients. Proper location is the
most important initial step in build
ing Il highway Both utility and
beauty should be well considered.
Utility demands careful considera-
ton of gradients and of drainage. In
an ideal road the grade should never
exceed one foot in hundred. Steep
grades must be avoided even though
1t makes necessary longer roadway
and greater cost in cutting down
hills. In preceding columns you will
find a table showing the loss incurred
by horse in pulling power on grades
OF successive steepness. So important is
this matter that windings and curves
may be put in if necessary to bring it
about. The chief purpose in con-
structing road is to make easy and
safe animal locomotion as well as ve-
hicIc movement. No road is safe and
easy for animals if it contains steep
grades. 1t is not mere pulling that
Injuries horse: it is eXerting strength
in some unnatural position. \ situa-
ton in which the horses fore feet are
slightly lower than his hind feet is
more tolerable pulling posture than
one in which his fore feet are higher
than his hind feet. If necessary in Or
der to get easy grades, hills must be
cut down. ridges cut through, and ex.
ira expense incurred. From the stand.
point of the automobile easy grades
are, if possible, of greater importance
than to animals. The machine car
ries its own locomotive apparatus.
This largely increases the weight pro.
PEELED by the machine. Steep grades
not only use up more motive power,
but they greatly increase the jar and
the strain upon the entire machine.
1t Is said that an automobile used to
run up hills and down hills will hardly
last half as long as one that is daily
used on level ground Viewed from
any standpoint the steep grade is in
furious and should. if possible, be
avoided. Drainage is IA chief consid-
Grafton from the utility standpoint
1t is not enough to arrange for carry
ing the water Off the surface. The
road bed itself should be dry down for
quite a distance. In locating a road
bed frequent tests should be made to
find sccpage localities, and when
found, care should be exercised i'm
tnelr drainage.
1t might be Of advantage in road
building to put down Il central drain
the entire length of the road bed, es-
pecially in those regions where rain
fall is frequent. Lateral connections
with the gutter would, in connection
with the central drain: make an ade-
quate drainage system. The Roman
roads showed neither common sense
nor engineering skill Their idea was
to sink a stone wall sixteen feet wide
and three feet deep in the ground and
call it road. Have you ever stopped
to consider what would happen to an
unshod horse If he should travel rap
idly over about twenty miles of such
a road? Probably the Romans COW
cred their roads with turf Horse
shoeing did not come in until the
Christian era. have never been able
to satisfy myself as to how travel was
made tolerablc over those structures
for horses and for cattle. The idea
that roads could not be made unless
they rested upon ponderous and
enormous foundation of stone or ma
sonery fingered on down through the
middle ages until modern times. 1t
was the genius Of Macadam more than
of any other single person, chat dis
PEELED this illusion. Macadam main
tanned and demonstrated the impor-
lance of drainage in road building.
Il any ordinary strip of soil is drained