Alma record., 1914-02-05
MAINTAINING AN EARTH ROAD
Rain Falling on Highway Properly
Crowned VIII Run Quickly to Side
and Not Soak Into Surface.

If you look at the ordinary county
road after a shower you will see small
puddles along the wheel ruts and
sometimes larger pools. This water
stays on the road surface beside ditch
es 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 trav-
ell is called the travelled way. To pre-
vent water from standing on the trav-
eled way the road should be raised in
the center and should slope gently In
to broad shallow bitches. 1t Is then
said to have crown. If 1t is ten
feet from the center of the road to
the side ditch, the surface at the side
ditch should at least be ten inches
lower than 1t Is at the center where
the horses travel. The road then has
ten-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 30 that
the water can run out of them into
neighboring brooks or streams. II the
bitches merely collect 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 II SO soft that the wheels of
the wagons will cut through the road
surface and soon destroy it,
Sometimes water runs from land
along the road into the road and
forms a little stream down the wheel
tracks or in the middle where the
horses travel. When driveways into
farmyards are built across the side
bitches they frequently form channels
for water from the farmyard to run
into the road. The pipes under drive
rubbish and the water can no longer
run away. If the driveways that stop
the ditch water were rebuilt so that
no pipes were necessary and the ditch
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surface water would be stopped.
Sometimes a road runs across low
ground or through a swamp where the
road cannot 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
a cut. This is place where the earth
has been dug out so that the road can
go over hill without being too steep
The water which always flows quietly
Hnder 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 cali underdrain-
age. A good kind OF underdrainage is
a trench 10 go along under the side
drain and about three feet deep and
a foot and half wide. In this trench
a pipe is laid near the bottom and COW
cred with loose stones no bigger than
an egg. When the trench Is COM
pletely filled with loose stones the
ground water, instead of soaking into
the roadway, will stop among the
stones and flow down the hill through
the pipe.
To keep a 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.