Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-01
They Conform to No Particular
Standard and Violate
All Rules.
is IT SCHEME FOR ASPHALT?
Course Taken Suggests Those
Interested Are Attempting to
Discredit Broken Stone.
Would Substitute Expensive, Hot,
Noisy Asphalt and Concrete for
More Desirable Macadam.

| People are beginning to wonder what
| 1t is that the city road makers are
really trying to do.
What can be the purpose of the lay
! ing of roads that are already con-
demned by experience?
At least one part of the answer
| to this question is forthcoming: There
| appears to be sort of understanding
| among certain members of the council,
| the city engineer. other city officials,
and a number of leading citizens" that
macadamized roads are to be proved
| a failure, so that in the future they
can be wholly discarded.
Macadamized roads cost from SO. 80
to 81 per foot, let us say; asphaltum
roads say from $40 to SIS per foot. The
chance for profit Ut will not do to say
rake off') is more than twice as great
In the case of the more expensive than
| I'm that of the cheaper roads. Besides,
the owners of automobiles prefer the
asphalt. and that ought to settle 1t.
So much for the present. Other reasons
may be presented in due time. Mean
while, let US look again at the city
pavements.
WHAT THE PEOPLE SEE.
Many readers of the News have
taken a careful look at the city work
of macadamizing along the avenues
since the appearance of these articles
calling attention to the faulty meth
DDS of construction and the unsuitable
nature of the materials used in this
work. All agree that the construction
OF the new roads does not follow either
of the standard Observation-Disclosures or
Macadams. The rodas now building
are nondescript things that cannot be
classified. They do not conform to any
thing in way of authority, and the
question is, what are the city road
makers, especially the engineer, try
ing to get ut? There must be some-
thing at the bottom of this unexampled
persistence in wrong doing. What can
1t be?
TO DISCREDIT MACADAM?
The most plausible suggestion yet
made Is that the whole proceeding Is
an attempt to discredit utterly the brok-
en-stone pavements for city work here
after, so that. In the future, no more
macadamized streets viii be laid, but
all street paving will be of the con-
crete-asphalt variety, such as is now
used or being laid on the center streets
of the city where the traffic is heav-
lest This suggestion led the reporter
to new line of investigation: Are
the broken-stone pavements, either the
macadam or the telford variety, really
good roads? and should they continue
TO be laid in Salt Lake City, The
answer to these questions, the result
of actua, Investigations will appear
later in this paper. II is emphatically
In the Affirmative.
BROKEN STONE THE BEST.
Not much investigation was necessa-
ry to settle this point. Broken stone
pavements are now almost universally
preferred In suburban localities where
traffic is not excessively heavy. When
well laid. they are found to answer
every requirement of paved street.
The authorities agree that when the
rock is hard, tough, cemented with the
mortar formed from its own dust, brok-
en- into pieces not larger than 2A inch
es In diameter, and dove-taiied together
by heavy rolling after being properly
wetted, II makes the most pleasant and
desirable of all forms of suburban
roads. 1t liz, from the standpolnts OF
cost, sanitation, freedom from noise
under traffic, ease for the horses feet,
and GOODNESS In summer time, the best
road yet constructed These are all
very important considerations, and the
fact that the macadamized roads best
meet these requirements shows that
they are better than any other kind
wherever the traffic IL not so heavy
as TO make them undesirable from their
rapid wearing out In such situations.
WHAT ARE OUR ROADS?
Nobody can say what our roads are
They are not macadum, for the rocks
are OF all sizes Those just raked on
the newly finished roads by the man
with the hoe" measure from to 8
inches I'm the largest diameters, thus
being from 2lz to AZ inches larger than
the limit of size allowed by Mnca-
dams rules, and from III to 3k above
the limit allowed by modern practise
Neither are they teford roads. for they
have no foundation. These large pieces
are not assorted ana put at the bottom,
but are mingled irregularly with tho
small. The writer has not found, more
over, that ordinary macadam or telford
construction; while upon our city roads
now building on the avenues, o large.
not to say suspicious, quantity OF or
binary gravel pebbles, Is found among
tho material spread over the surface.
SOURCE OF THIS GRAVEL.
The presence OF this gravel, not who'll
| ~ free from ordinary soil, perplexed
the writer as he saw II lying on the
| suIlhNt bl Allf INV ~ "AiluAt Ioittl. HOW
came II there? What is It for3 Econo-
my or Improvement? No; nothing OF
this sort. Simply carelessness. An in
| vestigation OF the source of supply, the
| Pascoe quarries, reveals the fact that
| on top OF the rock IL a deep layer OF
! gravel and oarth--a waste material en-
| tirely unit for road construction. But
! Il Is all mixed with the broken stone
In the ernsher, along with a good many
smooth, rounded, and underground
rocks that could never bind into "A ma
cadam road with the ordinary rock
dust for oementation, In fact. nothing
short OF Portland cement would bind In
these smooth and rounded cobblestones.
But here they are-earth, gravel. and
rounded eobblestones-all thrown to-
gether 20 make a sort OF filling and
cover for road that Is without name
or nreocdent