Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1913-03-07


annual Good Roads" meeting of the
Pullman Chamber of Commerce held
last Saturday afternoon in the Ma
sonic hall. After a substantial
luncheon had been served, the meet
ing was called to order by w. E.
Hanson. The first speaker was L. V.
| Edwards, professor of highway and
railroad engineering at the w. S. c.
! He said, in part:
4 what l intend to talk about is
the method of improving earth roads
am not so very we'll acquainted with
the local conditions in this country,
and l may say something that will
not entirely apply to the conditions
here, but what | say will apply to
roads constructed of any kind of ma
terial that gets wet and sticky dur
ing the rainy weather. If the ma
terial sticks together l am sure the
things that l say will hold good.
| Now, the first thing to be con-
sidered is the location in improving
earth roads. The road supervisors
should, whenever possible, with the
equipment that they have at hand,
change the location of the road so as
to reduce the grade, and at the same
| time improve the drainage. For a
! good earth road it is necessary to
keep the water away from it and not
allow it to approach within less than
/ | 8 inches of the top. Then in order
that large loads may be carried, the
grade should be reduced wherever
/ possible to the maximum of five per
cent that adopted by the state for
maximum on state roads.
| Grade is what limits the load that
can be carried on road more than
anything else. An average team can
haul on two and one-half per cent
grade, that is two and one-half feet
rise to the hundred horizontal, about
36 tons; on five per cent grade the
same team could haul on an earth
road about "a tons, and on a ten
per cent grade about IL tons. There
fore, a one-foot rise per hundred feet
is equivalent to reducing the. load
that team can haul from 300 to
400 pounds. In order that the team
may be eXerted to the same amount
whenever the per cent of grade is in
creased one foot in a hundred. the
load must be reduced, say $50
pounds. From this you have an idea
as to the Importance of reducing
grades.
men improving earth roads
should try to locate them so that the
work will not have to be all done
over when it is decided to put on
some kind of hard surface as ma
cadam, gravel, or concrete. Follow
ing location would come construc-
ton. I will not say much about this
part of the improvement, but the
equipment usually used consists of
picks and shovels, slip scrapers,
Fresno scrapers, wheel scrapers, and
road grader. In order for a road
supervisor to do economical work
with these machines, he should know
to what limits of haul they are suit
able. Whenever you see a person
using slip scraper beyond haul of
from $50 to 200 feet, he is wasting
somebody's money; whenever you see
him using a Fresno beyond 400 or
500 feet, he is wasting somebody's
money; whenever you see him using
wheeler beyond 500 or 1000 feet,
he is wasting somebody's money. The
road grader, in my opinion, is the
machine to use in shaping earth
roads, that is, in giving the proper
crown, and in cutting side bitches;
but after the road has been shaped
with road grader, the farther you
keep that machine from the road,
the better 1t will be for the road.
Following the construction will come
maintenance.
at Is absolutely essential to main
tain earth roads almost constantly,
if they are to be disable during all
seasons of the year. There is abso-
lutely no question but what the split
log drag Is the machine to use to
maintain an earth road. There is a
great difference of opinion about this
but tried the drag out on some of
the roads leading out to the college
farm last spring, and within a very
short while had those roads in good