The Bossier banner., 1908-06-18
FRENCH ROAD SYSTEM
Administration and Construction
of Worlds Best Highways.
RECORD OF ALL WORK KEPT

Building Of Roads Supervised by the
Government as Carefully as a Rail-
road Constructs Tracks-Marked At
tsntion Paid to Drainage.
Good roads are among the best assets
Of any community, and the American
state which first secures them in
systematic way will derive benefits
which it will never fully appreciate
The Los Angeles highway commits
sion recently addressed inquiries to
American Consul Skinner at MarseiIles,
asking him about the laws and en-
glneering methods in France Consul
Skinner investigated and has published
most interesting explanation of the
subject, from which the following ex-
tracts We're made:
France has the finest roads in the
world, both in physical form and rela
tion to the national geography. The
French nation has spent more than
$4O0,OOO,OO0 on them to more than
$2OO,O00,OO0 spent by the local depart
ments.
Down at the bottom of the French
road system is the humble cantonniere,
or road foreman, who has charge Of
one to three miles of road. He is to
the roads what the section boss is to a
railroads organization. Up at the top
is the School of Roads and Bridges, a
great technical college in which engi-
neering. construction and every detail
of road building is taught. Between
these two extremes the government
controls, manages, regulates every
thing. A record is kept of every bit
of road in the country, what it cost,
who built it and how, the expenses for
maintenance and rebuilding = every
thing in it's history Is carefully record
ed. Frances highway system is card
indexed like the list Of patrons of a
mail order house.
France does not have the best roads
because it has special skill in making
them. An English engineer designed
the scheme. No more so because it
has especially large or unusually eX-
cellent supplies of materials. The same
materials can be found all over the
United States. French roads are per-
feet because the road laws are near
perfection, because the road business
is a profession and not a job and be-
cause the men who make themselves
proficient are certain of special recog
milton.
But about the physical construction
of French road. To begin with,
French experience proves that deep,
solid foundations and fine surfaces are
not SO important as something else
commonly erlooke1-drainage 1t is
primary and ironclad principle of
French roadmaking that the roadway
must receive no more than its own
natural infall. Everything else must
give way to this.
A standard French national road is
forty-six feet wide. In the middle is
the road proper, twenty feet wide.
either side, are driftways, sloping away
from the surfaced road slightly These
are used as foOtpaths and must be
hard and heavy enough to hold in place
the surfacing material of the road
proper. Finally outside all this must
ton of the ground makes this neces-
sary for drainage.
They begin by digging out "box"
in the earth the width Of the roadway
proper, twenty feet. This is carefully
cony~&ed at the bottom, so that the
hard surfacing materials shall be Of
the same thickness throughout and
give surface of exactly the right
curvature. This curvature is from one
fiftieth to one-fortieth of the width.
When the "boX" has been carefully
prepared the bottom and sides are Wig
orously 'tamped' to assure that they
will be hard enough to hold the solid
materials firmly. Then it Is ready for
the crushed stone, etc, to be put in.
Every bit of crushed stone must pass
through a two and one-third inch
screen Eight inches of this crushed
material is deposited In the box, and
then it is rolled with a six ton roller.
While the rolling is going on large
amounts of water are constantly sprin-
kled on the surface. At the same time
a mixture of sandy and argillaceous
materials equal in volume to 10 per
cent of the amount Of crushed stone
used is sprinkled slowly on the surface
along with the water and very evenly,
and the whole is rolled down until the
tire of a loaded wagon will make no
track Then the road is finished save
for the requirement that it must sea
son for fifteen days before being open
ed to traffic. This is 4 description OF
a crushed stone surface. Where other
materials must be used they are pro
vided for in the French scheme-burn-
ed clay, gravel, etc. There is a plan
for every material and every region.
When the road is built the canton
Mere tramps up and down it and keeps
1t in repair, fills ruts with broken
stone, clears the bitches, etc. Above
the cantonniere Is foreman in charge
Of a larger section, above him an en-
cheering superintendent, and SO on
up to the inspector general of high
WAYS and bridges, who is head of the
whole system for the country. Every
man in the list receives specific orders
from his next superior and is ranked
according to his execution of them.
They have no broad tire laws in