Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-06-25
Suggestions That Should be Followed
in Winneshiek County.
GOVERNMENT EXPERTS ON
MAINTENANCE OF ROADS.
United States Department of Public
Roads Gives Advice on Repair
and Maintenance of Earth
Roads.

If you look at the ordinary coun-
try road after a shower you will see
small puddles along the wheel ruts
and sometimes larger pools. This
water stays on the road surface be-
cause it cannot drain away into the
side bitches. If you look closely
You will see side bitches which have
grown up with bushes and weeds in
many cases, and which are so far
from the travelled part of the road
that the rain water does not drain
into them. That part of the road
way where the wagons travel is call
ed the travelled way. To prevent wa
ter from standing on the travelled
way the road should be raised in the
center and should slope gently into
broad shallow bitches. 1t is then
said to have crown. If it is 10
1eet from the center of the road to
the side ditch, the surface at the
side ditch should be at least 10 in
ches lower than it is at the center
where the horses travel. The road
then has 10-inch crown. The rain
that falls on road properly crowned
will run quickly to the side and not
soak into the surface or form pools.
The side bitches for surface water
should run parallel to the right of
way, and should be open at every low
point so that the water can run out
of them into neighboring brooks or
streams. If the bitches merely col
lect the water from the road surface
and 1t can not run away, large pools
will be formed along the roadside,
which will gradually soak into the
soil beneath the road and make it so
soft that the wheels of wagons will
cut through the road surface and
soon destroy it. d
Sometimes water runs from land
along the road into the road and
forms little stream down the wheel
tracks or in the middle where the
horses travel. When driveways into
farm yards are built across the side
bitches they frequently form chan
nels for water from the farm yard
to run into the road. The pipes un-
der driveways become filled with
leaves or rubbish and the water can
no longer run away. If the drive
ways that stop the ditch water were
rebuilt so that no pipes were neces-
sary and the ditch could be left open,
much trouble from surface water
would be stopped.
Sometimes road runs across low
ground or through a swamp where
the road can not be drained by side
bitches alone. If the road were
built higher like a railroad en-
bankment and made with a
crown, it would dry and harden.
Sometimes road passes through
what is called a cut. This is a place
where the earth has been dug ont
so that the road can go over hill
without being too steep. The water
which always flows quietly under
the ground on hill sides is known
as ground water. In road cuts such
water sometimes makes the road very
muddy, and the road then needs
what road builders call underdrain-
age. A good kind of underdrainage
is a trench to go along under the
side drain and about feet and a.
foot and half wide. In this trench
a pipe is laid near the bottom and
covered with loose stones no bigger
than an egg. When the trench is
completely filled with loose stones
the ground water, instead of soak
ing into the roadway. will stop
among the stones and flow down the
hill through the pipe.
To keep road smooth and crown
ed the best method is to drag it with
a road drag. A road drag is made
easily with two halves of log
which has been split. The log should
be about or inches in thickness
and about or feet long. The two
halves of the log are set feet apart
with the smooth faces forward and
upright. They are then fastened to-
gether with braces set in holes bored
through the log. A pair of horses
may be used to drag the road and
are hitched to a chain fastened to the
front half of the log. The road drag
should move forward so that it
slants across the road in such way