Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-08-20
ABOUT
OILING
STREETS
Los Angeles Times Tells of a
New System In Use
in That City


Soldiers Home toward the ocean, |
north of Santa Monica, that has, in |
the judgment of many experienced |
road builders, a most important |
bearing on road development in Cal
ifornia. 1t differs from the ordi- |
nary street or road oiling in that
it is a veritable construction of a |
street out of natural soil with the |
use of oil. The resultant product is
in fact very like an asphalt-lies as
smooth and will last nearly as long.
While more expensive than careless
"oil sprinkling experience
has determined practically useless
it is nevertheless so inexpensive as
to be practical for use in cities and
upon the main country thorough
fares.
The street now being improved is
a 130-foot boulevard, with car
tracks along the center. The net
width of the area worked, from curb
to curb, is sc feet. The total length
is $4,000 feet, or a little over three
miles.
The system used is about as fol-
lows The street, which is a sandy
loan, with some admiXture of blue
and red clay and slate and gravel, is
graded and plowed six inches deep
and pulverized with harrows. If it
is very dry, a small amount of water
is sprinkled on and mixed in so as
to make it workable. Oil is then ap-
piled at the rate of one gallon to
the square yard, and the cultivators
mix it in to the depth of four inches.
A second gallon of oil to the square
! yard is then applied and cultivated
down to five inches. The oil is then
turned under with turning plow,
four inches deep.
Now, up to this point the process
! does not materially differ from that
in general use where careful work
is done in the mixing of oil in the
making of a road. But the next
step is radical departure, and
marks the beginning, it is contend
ed, of a new era in road making.
/ The process next succeeding this
in the common forms of road oiling
is the rolling of the road, which
crushes down a thin scum on the
surface that later scales off and
leaves the road full of chuck-holes.
But with the new system the next
process is one of tamping. A huge
cylinder about eight feet long and
five feet in diameter, weighing some
five thousand pounds, and furnished
with rows of flat-headed teeth, is
hauled back and forth over the
street, slowly tamping the oiled
earth up from the bottom to within
two inches of the top. When the
tamper first goes over the street, 1t
sinks the teeth, which are about six
inches long, clear to the end in the
soft, oily earth, but each time a new
layer of solid asphalt is plastered oo
the bottom, and the cylinder rises a
little out of the mass until, when
the tamping is finally completed, tho
mixture is so solid that the teeth no
longer sink in.
There is vast difference between
merely crushing the surface OF an
oiled road with a roller and tamping
five or six inches of oil and soil from
the bottom up. That difference
means years of wear.
At this stage of the proceedings
the tamping is brought to within
two inches of the top. The street in
then regarded, aud the two inches OF
loose soil are cultivated and given
one gallon more of oil to the square
yard. That is altogether three gal
Ions to the square yard, all applied
warm, so as TO sprinkle freely.
Again the cultivator, and then the
tamper. this time worked until 1t
reaches the surface. When the tam
per is done. the surface is a little
uneven from the marks of the teeth,
and this is taken out by a roller
weighing two tons to twelve inches
of tire. A more perfect surface can
be obtained by slight sprinkling
of gravel before the roller comes on.
The cost of this work is about 10
cents square yard, or 81 a run
ming foot, 10 a 56-foot street( be-
tween curbs). The cost on the ordi-
nary city street where no grading
was needed, would amount to from
80 to 40 cents running foot OF
frontage. In other words. II done
under the Vrooman act, street