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 ASPHALT7
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
| it 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 a sort of understanding
among certain members of the council,
the city engineer, other city officials,
and q 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 20. 90
to 81 per foot. let us say; asphaltum
roads say from $40 to SO per foot The
chance for profit Dit will not do to say
rake orr is more than twice as great
In the case of the more expensive than
In 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 TIE 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 methods-Telfords or
Macadam's. 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 at? 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 Will be laid, but
all street paving will be of the con-
crete-asphalt variety. such az 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 roads2 and should they continue
TO be laid in Salt Lake City? The
answer to these questions, the result
of actua. ,nveatigationA will appear
later in this paper. 1t 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
we'll 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 2h inch
es in diameter, and dove-tailed together
by heavy rolling after being properly
wetted. II makes the most pleasant and
desirable of all forms of suburban
roads. 1t is, from the standpoints 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 Is 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 off
the newly finished roads by the man
with the hoe" measure from 4 TO 8
inches In the largest diameters, thus
being from 2A to Az inches larger than
the limit of size allowed by Maca-
dams rules, and from TX TO 81 above
the limit allowed by modern practise.
Neither are they telford roads, for they
have no foundation. These large pieces
are not assorted and put al the bottom.
but are mingled lrregularly 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, large,
not TO say suspicious. quantity of or
binary gravel pebbles, Is found among
the material spread over the surface
SOURCE OF THIS GRAVEL.
The presence OF this gravel, not who'll
~ free from ordinary soil, perpleNed
the writer as he saw It lying on the
surface OF the newly made road. How
came 1t there2 What is It for? Econo-
my or Improvement? No; nothing of
this sort. Simply oarelessness. An in
vestigatlon OF the source OF supply, the
Pascoe quarries, reveals the fact that
on top of the rock is deep layer OF
gravel and earth--a waste material en-
tirely unfit for road construction. But
Il Is all mixed with the broken stone
IN the crusher, along with good many
smooth, rounded, and underground
rocks that could never bind into a ma
cadam road with the ordinary rock
dust for concentration. In fact. nothing
short OF Portland cement would bind In
But here they are-earth, gravel. and
rounded cobblestones--all thrown to-
gether 10 make sort OF filling and
cover for "A road that Is without name