The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-11-15
Recommendations of Engineer
Shirley Of the Road Com
mission.

Shirley Of the Road Com
mission.
In the annual report of the State
/ Roads Commission, made public re-
Gently, Chief Engineer Shirley made inn
poJaut recommendations for smooth sur
facing the States highways with view
to securing greater duration and econ
omv Mr. Shirley does not go 50 far
as to recommend the entire substitution
OF bitumuous Or cement covered roads
for those now in use. but he dwels
upon the superiority of the smooth road
over the present Crosby road.
Nh Shirley SAYS:
"Buuminous road work is a modern
development for meeting both the actual
needs under modern traffic and the de-
sires OF modern civilization for greater
efficiency. comfort. satisfaction and bet
ter sanitary conditions. The advent of
the motor vehicle has greatly changed
thc conditions under which a road form
erly existed. Good roads are in greater
/ demand, owing to the greater radius of
action of the automobile. Smoother
roads with more even surfaces are more
desired because OF the sensltivcneSs al its
greater speeds to what haY- been con-
sideryd in the past slight inequalities of
road ,u"ace
More CenentitiOus surfaces are now
needed, due to its ability to destroy the
bond OF the original stone surface. to
cause in,erra. friction and wear on the
pieces of ston- forming the road crust,
and 10 render itself more susceptible to
the elements Further, the fine material
which formerly laid on a good road sur
face and which. when not TOO chick. was
not seriously Objectionable, but indeed
was OF some value IN the protection
which il afforded to the stones compos-
ing the road. has been generally raised
by the motor. and 50 extensively in fact
that under the present conditions there is
no question but what the disadvantages.
! diSCcmtprtS and unhealthulnesS OF this
! dust fat outWeighs any good that it may
! have formerly possessed. It apparently
! has never been suggested that a remedy
! for this stale Of affairs is the abolition OF
! the motor vehicle On the contrary
| their increase in numbers and their de
! vriQ)nynt Tor all sorts of purposes seems
| ia b. inevitable and probably fortunate.
Int r-nsdy. therefore. seems to be to
| cure the defects of the road. 1t can
! readily be seen with the variety of cond-
| tons prevailing in each case. that there
! is no one best way nor one best material
| The decision as to method or material
to be used depends in each case upon
conditions of traffic. availability of mater
ials, desires of the locality and prob
| ably changes in conditions during the
! life OF the work decided on to be done.
| The clear recognition OF this fact Is I'M
! portant for good work and economy.
From continued observations and ex-
! l.+SF tty,y,
| but that a road used by no less than 20
motor vehicles every p hours should be
treated with biumen either during or
! immediately after the construction OF the
surface with gravel shells or broken
stone, if economy and satisfactory main
tenanCe are to be had This treatment
may also be justified for other reasons.
In discussing the same question, the
| commission in It's report says:
Some experimental work has been
conducted on the poorer local materials
by the employment of Cements and btu
mems IN order 10 determine the adviSa-
ability of their use, and some fairly sat
! iSiaCtorV results have been secured. The
methods followed in this experimental
work are described in greater detail in
the report Of the Chief Engineer.
The suriaCng OF the STATE roads by
btumens or pitches in order to protect
them in the start from injury has been
| fully considered By the commission. The
policy OF oilng the roads 10 this manner
soon after construction has been gener
ally adopted, and the commission be-
| lieveS that the added expense has been
! fully justified Dv the greater efficiency
! OF the roads thus treated. The different
methods of treatment are discussed at
length by the Chief Engineer in his re-
port.
Some of the members of the com
mission have advocated from the start
the building of the main through roads
of the selected systems first. Although
this policy has been followed it is now
possible to remedy this in a measure
I by building some $50 additional miles
of connecting sections and leaving the
other roads of the system aggregating
/ $50 miles, for subsequent construction.
This is fully discussed later"
SUMMARY or THE WORK.
The following is a summary of the
work accomplished by the State Roads
Commission, since the organization in
1908:
! STATE ROADS.
Miles.
Surveys made of III sections,
aggregating. ................... 600. 50
/ Plans and specifications for
III sections, aggregating ,........ 37S72
I Contracts let for SO sections,
ag2regating. ........ ................. 25S.4 AZ
! Other arrangements made for
/ 50 sections, aggregating.. ......... eo.2I
Work accepted as completed,
aggregating Observation-Disclosures. 1854