Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-11

ton steam roller Is the standard heavy
weight used to datten out the warm sur
faces OF Washington's streets. Like the
Taft steam roller In politics. 1t does its
work well. in fact, so we'll that there are
not enough bumps left standing for a
phrenologtst to get in any Of his fancy
work.
In addition to the steam roller hand
rollers Of smaller caliber are used to COM
press the incipient streets. The easiest
part OF paving street Is sprinkling pow
dered cement on the top of the yet warm
asphalt. This whitish powder works into
the interstices and becomes part of the
upper crust and never leaves the surface.
Even the heaviest traffic is defied to rub
It OF. This cement gives the street the
characteristic whitish hue so glaring 10
the eyes on q sunny day.
From ten to twenty-five years is the APP
proximate age Of one of Washington s
streets. Fifteen years Is sometimes taken
as approximately the life of an average
asphalt highway that has not outlived
its smoothness. The strangest features Of
streets are the effects Of use on them. For
lack Of use a thoroughfare will die. This
axiom means that if street is not used
at all after it has been asphalted the
asphalt will be in a worse condition than
If abnormally heavy traffic had passed
over it. Heavy traffic Is hard on a street.
but no traffic at all is worse. A medium
between these two extremes is the life of
a street and only by this medium can
the life Of a coat of asphalt be prolonged.
which bears out the proverb, Nothing in
excess"
Therefore, II one of Washingtons high
WAYS were to be asphalted, and just
enough mild traffic passed over it to pack
it down and knead 1t all over the surface,
the asphalt on that highway would no
doubt last forever and would require no
patching. all other conditions being equal.
But all conditions are not equal. for the
seasons get in their destructive work.
playing havoc with the surfaces of the
highways. CIimatical' changes are hard
on asphalted streets. Rains in Washing
ton are not quite long enough In duration
to materially affect them. The hardest
weather on paved streets is that expert
enced on a cold, windy winters day.
Those bleak and windy days when the
mercury is on the ebb: are death on as
phalt Ears, noses, feet and toes are
not the only perishable commodities when
Jack Frost gets in his freezing work. with
cold winds to help him. Those freezing
winds cause the surface Of the asphalt to
contract and grow hard and brittle, so
that it crumbleS when traffic passes over
1t.
Streets Deteriorate in Winter.
Constituent sands loosen when those
wintry blasts sweep over the highways.
and the constituency falls apart. is
broken, and the asphalt does not hold to-
gether we'll; but, on the contrary, wears
off easily. A hot, sunny summers day is
good for street. In spite of the fact that
when persons walk over the hot asphalt
it gives with the tread of their feet and
leaves imprints of their shoes. while
wagon tracks leave their endless impress
siOns. Hot weather heats the asphalt up
to nearer the softening state and YIELDS
the cracks in 1t together stronger than it
formerly was.
. The cost of asphalting streets today is
cheaper than II used to cost the District
to have inferior grades of asphalt laid
years ago. Where the price of asphalting
a street formerly was $3.7S a yard it only
costs $1.63 a yard today These figures
include labor. materials and ALL
The latter figures represent the cost or
paving with the most stable and strong
base. used for heavy traffic. as on Penn
sylvania avenue. so that the actual figures
for the average street are even lower
Fortunes have been spent on the ada