The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-06-16
STUDYING THE MAKING OF
ROADS
I. II. Jones Takes Trip to Portland
and Reports Some Things He
Learned About Modern
R0ad-Making
Is Much Interested i'm Roads


land, where he went to study thu
methods by which people there arr
making roads.
| He has considerable to do with
road work by reason of his beine
on the county board and the state
board to build the Ross Fork roaC
through the sand, and in order tC
better qualify himself for his worl
he took this trip at his own expense
returning an enthusiastic for good
roads.
He said that great deal has been
done in the past few years in making
the principal thoroughfares leading tc
Portland into macadam roads with
easy grades, and the work of exten.
sion and repair is being carried on
in way to give opportunity to learn
much by their experience.
They have many hills to cut down
and hollows to grade through, but
we have the advantage of having the
country already pretty we'll leveled of
for the finishing coat, so that we es-
cape such heavy expense in most of
our road building. They also have
difficulty in getting suitable rock and
gravel for macadamizing, and for
much of the work in the Willamette
valley they are taking the rock out
of the bottom of the river by means
OF a $4,000 dredge with rock crush-
ers operated upon it, and barges to
carry the prepared material up or
down the stream to the place where
it Is desired for use.
In some places he found them using
teams and hand labor for placing the
rock in the roadbed and rolling it.
and in others the steam rollers and
distributors drawn by the steam roll
ers carried the materials, poured
them out in desired amounts along
the roadbed and the great weight of
the engine that furnished the power
for the hauling also pressed the rocks
into place. This method makes
great saving in operating expense and
makes it an object to invest in the
machinery If there is much work to
do, as they have the machinery left
after expending a given amount, as
profit as compared with doing 1t by
the other method, besides getting bet
ter results.
The materials used in such work
are of three grades Ior sizes, pea
gravel and sand, medium size or that
ranging about an inch in diameter,
and coarse, or that ranging from
about two to three inches in diameter
In the method of laying them a
change is being adopted, it having
been demonstrated that better results
are secured. The standard method
for long time has been to lay the
coarse material first, follow with the
medium and finish with the fine. Ex-
perience shows that the vibrations of
the roadbed bring the coarse material
to the surface in the course of years
and makes constant repairs necessary.
The new method is to lay the medium
size first and then the coarse and
press the large ones down into the
medium rather than the medium into
the coarse. The theory is that If a
proper bed is made in which to lay a
stone it will remain in position better
than when the bed is put on top of
1t and pressed down about it. An
illustration is given in the work of
the stone mason who lays some NOR
tar on which to bed the stones, rather
than laying the stone and then put
ting the mortar down about it, and it
stays in place because of the firm base
given it. In the case of the roadbed
the jarring and vibrations tend to
sink the small particles lower and
that crowds the larger ones higher
just as in shaking a pan of gravel
the sand and small stones go into
the voids below and force the large
ones to the top. The new method,
therefore, is to make a bed for the
larger ones, press them down into it
and then fill in and coat them over.
The plans adopted for the Ross
Fork road are to make a uniform
grade 40 feet in width, and in the
middle of this belt lay belt of mac
adam six inches thick and IL feet
wide, the macadam being level with
the earth or sand grade.
Where the grade is lower than the
adjacent sandbanks the brush taken
from the grade will be piled in such
a way as to form lodge for tn sand |
on the lee side of the brush and back |
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