The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-06-20
THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
OF EARTH ROADS.


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 roadway
where the wagons travel Is called
the travelled way. To prevent wat
err from standing on the travelled way
the road should be raised in the CEN
ter and should slope gently into
broad shallow bitches. 1t is then
sad to have 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 1t is at the center where
the horses travel. The road then
has a 1O-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 collect the wat
Ell from the road surface and it can
not run away, large pools will be
formed along the roadside, which
will gradually 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
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 under
driveways become filled with leaves
or rubbish and the water can no lon
ger run away. If the driveways that
stop the ditch water were rebuilt so
that no pipes were necessary and the
ditch could be left open, much tro-
uble from surface water would be
stopped.
Sometimes road rims 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 embankment
across such low land and made with
a crown, it would be dry and hard.
Sometimes a road passes through
what is called cut. This is place
where the earth has been dug out
10 that the road can go over hill
without being too steep. The water
which always flows quietly under the
;round on hill sides is known as the
round water. In road cuts such wat
n sometimes makes the road very
muddy and the road then needs what
Dad builders call undertakings.
A good kind of undertakings is
trench to go along under the side
Train and about feet deep and a
DOT and half wide In this trench |
! pipe is laid near the bottom and
covered with loose stones no bigger
han an egg. When the trench is
filled with loose stones
he ground water instead of soaking |
nto the roadway will stop among the
tones and flow down the hill thru
he pipe.
To keep a road smooth and crown
ID the best method is to drag it with
road drag. A road drag is made .
asily with two halves of log which
las been split. The log should be
bout or 8 inches in thickness and
bout 6 or feet long. The two
alves of the log are set 3 feet apart
nth the smooth faces forward and
pwright. They are then fastened
ogether with braces set in holes Dor
d through the log. A pair of horses
lay be used to drag the road and
re hitched to a chain fastened to
he front half of the log. The road
rag should move forward so that it
ANTS across the road in such a way
hat a small amount of earth will
ide past the smooth face of the log
)ward the center of the road, thus
orming the crown. The edges of
ne logs will smooth out the ruts.
he best way to drag is to begin at
lie side ditch and go up one side of
lie road, and then down the other.