Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1913-06-27
THE REPAIR AND
MAINTENANCE
OF EARTH ROADS.

If you look at the ordinary country
road after a shower you will see small
puddles along the wheel ruts and
sometimes large pools This water
stays on the road surface because it
cannot drain away into the side
bitches. If you look closely you will
see side bitches which have grown mp
with brush and weeds in many eases.
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 roadway where the wagons travel
IS called the travelled way. To prevent
water 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 a crown. If it is 10 feet from
the center of the road to the side
ditch, the surface at the side ditch
should be at least 10 inches lower than
it is at the center where the horses
travel. The road then has a 10 inch
crown. The rain that falls on a road
properly crowned Will run quickly to
the side and not soak into the surface
or make 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 neigh boring
brooks and streams If the bitches
merely collect the water from the road
surface and it cannot run away, large
pools will be formed along the road
side, which will soak into the soil be-
meath the road and make it so soft that
the wheels of wagons will cut through
the road surface and soon destroy it.
Sometimes water runs from land
! along the road into the road and forms
little stream down the wheel track
or in the middle where the horses
trave, When driveways into farm
yards are built across the side bitches
they frequently form channels for the
water from the farm yard to run into
the road. The pipes under drive ways
become filled with leaves or rubbish
and the water can no longer run away
If the drive ways that stop up the
ditch water were rebuilt 50 that no
pipes were necessary and the ditch
could be left open, much trouble from
surface water could be stopped
Sometimes a road runs across low
ground or through d swamp where the
road can not be drained by side bitches
alone. If the road were built high like
a railroad embankment across such low
| land and made with crown, it would
be dry and hard. Sometimes a road
passes through what is called a cut
This is place where the earth has been
dug out so that the road can 90 over
a hill with out being too steep. The
water which always flows quietly un-
der on hill sides is known as ground
water In road cuts such water some
times makes the road very muddy, and
the road then needs what the road
! builders call underdrainage. A good
! kind of underdrainagei is a trench to 90
along under the side drain and about
feet deep and a foot and a 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
soaking into the road way. will STOP
among the stones and flow down the
hill through the pipe.
To keen a road smooth and crowned
| fine best method is to drap If with
road drag. A road drag is made easily
with two halves of a loo which has
been snlit The loo should be about
/ 6 or 3 inches in thickness and 6 or 8 #.
| lone. The Two halves of the log are set
about 3 feet apart with the smooth
faces forward and upright. They are
fastened tooetler with braces set in.
holae bored tbrouCh the loo A nair of