The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-09
BAD ROADS,.

Elsewhere in this issue will be
found a communication from a
reader complaining of the roa;l from
Abbeville to Monterey and of that
from Abbeville to Calhoun Falls.
Justice" thinks that Supervisor
Stevenson should not be occupying
himself with working the roaI to
Little Mountain, nor with building a
forty-foot road from Abbevilln to
Donalds, until the roads first NEIL
toned have been worked.
With regard to the little work
contemplated on the Little Mountain
road Justice" is right on principle.
The county has enough roads to
work without going into the business
of working private roads, but this
contemplated work would not take
any very great amount of time; in
fact, it would take so short a time
that we do not see that it would in
terfere at all with the working of the
roads of the county, if provision
were made for this purpose other
wise. Still, if anyone objects, so
far as we are concerned, we would
be very glad to see Nh. Stevenson re-
fuse to do the work, and let it be
done by others. We do not ask
that a precedent be set which might
be embarrassing in the future.
The proposed widening of the road
from Abbeville to Donalds is not the
idea of the Supervisor, but of a con-
tributor to Jul last issue, and the
Supervisor is in no way responsible
for the idea. We do not know that
it meets with his approval; in fact,
we presume that it does not, or we
would have such a road.
But speaking of a forty foot road
from Abbeville to Donalds, we would
like to endorse the letter in last
weeks issue. That is just what the
county should have. We should
have a forty foot road not only to
Donalds, but to Lowndesville, to Nc
Cormick, to Calhoun Falls, and to
every other town of any size in the
county. All the main highways of
the county should be constructed
this width. If they were so con-
structed we would have better roads,
and less complaint.
1t is a fact that we have poor roads
in Abbeville county. There are
many reasons why we have these bad
roads. We have given the matter
some thought, and while we are net
roadbuilders, we believe that there
r a few causes which have contri-
buted to make roads worse than
those in some adjoining counties.
In the first place, we believe that
the roads in this county are harder to
work and keep in proper repair than
the roads in Anderson and Green
wood counties. We have more clay
than either of these counties, and it
is clay which makes bad roads, espe-
cially following rainy seasons. Then
we have a great many streams in GER
tain portions of the county, and the
country about these streams is bro
ken and very hilly. This makes the
roads wash easily, and makes it ne
cessary to do constant work in order
to keep the roads smooth.
Then, we do not work our roads
as we'll as the other counties; and
the chief fault lies in the fact that
these other counties have widened
their roads, sc that they do not wash
away with every shower that comes
along. Some good work has been
done in the county in this line in the
last several months, and the results
will show, we believe, the wisdom of
having wider roads. The idea has
been that the roads must be built
high in the middle and well ditched.
According to our observation this is
not the correct way to build roads.
The roads must be ditched, it is true,
and they must be so constructed that
they will drain, but they must be
built wide enough to allow the water
to drain by degrees and not wash
dircheS in ~rrnninC from tho cantra