The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-04-13

trees, and which will serve to promote
greater pride in school environment.
Examination of teachers for county
certificates will be held on Friday and
Saturday, May IA and Is, in the Captain
James Lawrence school, Burlington.
The annual meeting of the Burlington
County Teachers Association. which was
fixed for Saturday. May 10, has been
postponed until Saturday, May 20, and
will be held in Moorestown as originally
intended.
The Highway and the Autom obi1e.
In its issue of March 81 the Scientific
american contained an article under the
above heading. The following Wednes-
day the Burlington County Board of
Freeholders discussed the question of
bonding the county for the purpose of
building more stone roads. 1t was shown
in the debate that the building of roads
was not all that should be taken into
consideration, that the matter of repairs
is very important factor in the subject
The Scientific american writes all of its
articles only after carefully studying, from
every standpoint, the views it proposes to
publish, and the information given may
be regarded as authentic. The article in
question seems to bear directly upon the
situation in this county, SO we give it
in full:
"a serious problem which grows In i'm
portance every year is that of the relation
of the automobile to the public highways.
| That the automobile is the most active of
all agents in the breaking down of ma
cadamized roads is a fact that has been
long recognized by our state engineers,
and of late years it has become so evident
| that not even the most enthusiastic auto
mobilist can deny that great damage is
done. When a new stretch of macadam-
! lied roadway is thrown open to the public
| it offers such strong attraction to automo-
bile owners that, even in cases where its
use involves considerable detour as COM
pared with shorter routes over roads of
inferior quality, 1t Is certain to become so
popular with the rubber tired vehicles
that they will frequently constitute the
majority of the traffic. The initial break
ing down of the carefully prepared sur
face is almost immediate. The so called
|
| tires picks up the finely-crushed binding
material of the surface, and throws 1t to
the rear, exposing the broken edges of
the top course of macadam. This in its
turn is broken down, ground into dust,
picked up by the passing wheels, and
carried by the wind into the adjoining
fields, or sifted upon the lawns and
buildings of adjacent property.
''The process of disintegratiOn goes on
at speed proportionate to the density of
! the traffic, until finally the heavy under
| living foundation rock of the macadam is
exposed. When this condition has been
reached there is nothing for it but to
practically rebuild the roadway. or at
least the upper half of it. The destruct-
i've action of automobile traffic has been
greatly intensified in recent years by the
introduction Of chains and other nom
skidding deYices, which are undoubtedly
active agents in breaking down and pull
veriziug the surface dressing and the
upper, broken stone layers of mac
adamized road.
There are but two courses open in
dealing with this perplexing and very
serious problem Either the automobile
traffic must be restricted, or new and i'm
proved methods of road construction must
| be used No one who seriously considers
the matter believes, for "a moment, that
fines, heavy licenses, and restrictions as
| to speed, travel, or the use of non-skid-
ding devices will fully meet the problem.
| Legislative restrictions may modify the
evil but they cannot possibly eradicate it.;
and this for the reason that, as we have
shown above, the destructive effects of
the automobile are inherent in that very
feature of its construction-the pneumatic
tire-which has made the automobile a
possibility. A vehicle weighing from
1900 to 5000 pounds, running at speeds
Of from 20 to 80 miles an hour on pneu-
matte tires, will break down, and very
] quickly break down, the type of mac
! adamized road of which we are building
thousands of miles throughout this
country. This is an indisputable fact,
and no amount of legislation can get rid
of it.
Evidently, then, the only solution of
the problem lies in constructing our high
ways with view to meeting the exact
ing conditions of traffic which have
arisen within the past ten years. We
must build automobile highways, and
since the automobile is by far the most
frequent user of the State roads, this will
be perfectly logical thing to do. 1t is
pretty well agreed that if some binding
material can be found which will shed the
surface water of the winter, and prevent
the surface dressing from grinding up
into an impalpable dust in the summer, q
long step will have been taken in Sc
curing q perfect road. The solution OF
the problem will be found, probably, In
the use of some form of tar although oul
experience in this country has shown that
the mere coating of the surface with this
material, unless the road itself has the
proper strength and consistency, is not
sufficient. In many cases the disintegra-
ton of the road still goes on, and because
of the soiling effects of the tar, the dust
and mud become more Objectionable than
before.
"The material for the upper layers Of
the macadam road should be selected fol
its strength and binding qualities; should
be carefully broken to size, and thorough
Iy rolled in. Too often the finished sur.
face is not given sufficient crown to in,
sure a quick shedding of the surface
water. This is a feature that should be
most carefully attended to. In tarring
the finished road care should be taken tc
give the tar sufficient time to get thor
ouQhly set before the road is thrown
open to traffic. This may be fastened by
giving the tarred surface thin coating Of
sand.
FINALLY, as we have frequently point
ed out in this journal, our whole system
of maintenance needs to be thoroughly
revised. Our present methods of allow
ing road to go to ruin, and then spread
ing layer of so-called dressing upon it.
and calling this procedure repair job
is simply barbarous. Eternal vigilance i
as necessary in the upkeep of modern
highway as 1t is in that of a steam rail
road track. Local indications of subsi
dence or wear should be Immediately re
paired The constant day-by-day atten
tion of repair gang, scattered at wild
intervals over a stretch of State highway