The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-06-23
FOR ROAD BUILDERS
SUGGESTIONS TO HELP THE IN
EXPERIENCED IN HIGHWAY
CONSTRUCTION.
FIRST STEP IS DRAINAGE
Get Water. or and Away From Road
40 Quickly 40 Posslble-Weeds and
Sod Make TroubIe-Proper Use Of
Gravel.
BY. HOWARD n. GROSS.

It is not overstating the fact to say
that ee:fourths of the men charged
with the responsibility of building
and repairing the roads the country
over, know very little about the sub
ject; they have not had the engineer
ing experience or even the practical
erience necessary; they have sim
ply followed their predecessors and
they do what the fellow before them
did.
In the movement for better high.
ways the first step is more intelli-
gent expenditure of the time and
money appropriated for the better
ment of the roads, to the end that the
community shall get the most and the
best results for it's contribution. 1t
is common practice to do either tho
wrong thing, or II perchance the right
thing is done, to do it at the wrong
time of the year. and the result is
very often an expenditure of one dol
lar to get thirty cents worth Of bene-
fit. AS an instance we might cite
that Illinois is spending five million
of dollars a year upon the highways,
and those in position to know, assert
that more than half of it is wasted
by ill timed and misdirected effort.
What is true of Illinois is true
throughout the central west.
In order to make suggestions that
will be Of value one must assume
some typical conditions and indicate
what it is best to do to improve the
roads under them.
In road improvement the first and
most important step is drainage.
Without proper drainage every effort
will fail Water Is the only natural
enemy of roads, and water is cow
ard and will run away If given a
chance, hence get the water off the
road and away from the road as
quickly as possible. This may be
done either by surface or sub-surface
drainage, by side bitches with ample
fall and proper outlet to carry the
water away from the highway, or by
tile. If the latter is done nothing
less than four inch tile ought to be
used and it should be very carefully
laid, and should be put on each side
of the road, particularly where the
drainage is most needed. Be sure
that the outlet il unobstructed If side
bitches are used. especially on hill
slope, and have them as wide as prac.
ticable at the bottom.
Suppose the. bed of the ditch is
twenty-four inches wide down a hill
slope. Construct SO that the bottom
of the ditch next to the hill side will
be an inch or so lower than the side
next to the road, so the flow will
tend to the hill side instead of to the
road.
Wherever it is necessary to carry
water across a roadway, it Is best to
use iron or concrete pipe and carry
it across at an angle Strong tile
will do If it is placed a sufficient dis
lance below the surface so it will not
be broken by the traffic. The outlet
of this crossing should be considera.
bly, farther down hill than the in.
take.
Where culverts are necessary have
them Of ample size, and it is equally
important to give the culvert sufficient
fall. A twelve inch culvert, twenty
four feet long with fall of four
inches, Is better than one twice the