Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-08-18
HOW TO MAKE AND
KEEP THE ROAD DRY
RAIN AND SNOW THE ENE-
MY OF GOOD
ROADS.
Ii Properly Built and Maintained a
Dirt Road Is as Good
As the Best.

Water, plus clay or ordinary earth,
when mixed, invariably forms mud.
On ordinary earth roads the rains
and melting snow furnish the water
and the passing traffic the mixing,
and the result is muddy roads. Take
away the water or prevent it from
mixing with the clay on the road sur
face and little or no mud will re-
suit. In other words, keep your road
dry if you wish it to remain hard,
smooth and free from mud.
Except in very sandy or arid reg
ions, good drainage is the cardinal
principle in the maintenance of earth
and gravel roads. Get the water
away from the road as quickly and
completely as possible. Water natur-
ally seeks the lowest level. You can
not keep the water from falling on
the road, but you can assist its nat
ural inclination to get away to
lower level. Keep the rutts filled and
the road crowned with a slope to-
wards the side bitches of from three
fourths to one inch to the foot, and
the water will not collect on the road
to soak in and be mixed to mud by
passing traffic. Keep the side ditch
es clean and with frequent outlets to
get the water away from the road en-
tirely. Do not let the culverts clog
up or material accumulate in the
bitches of your road. Water is an
enemy that will run away if you will
give it a chance. Do not neglect to
give it every chance. 1t will pay and
pay well.
| Like most other enemies, water is
not very destructive or dangerous un-
til it collects force. Therefore, get
the water away from your road at
every available opportunity and be-
fore it has time to collect in suffi-
Gent volume to be dangerous to the
road, and do not invite certain disas-
ter by making your culverts too small
to care for the largest possible
storm. Furthermore, build the cul-
/
cessity, flow through them and not
| find a way around or beneath them.
Properly designed substantial wing
and end walls are the fortification
which protect the culvert from at
tack and destruction during severe
storms. Do not build dry weather
culverts, build them with view of
caring for and protecting the road
during the worst possible storms.
Make your road dry, build it hard
and compact with crown sufficient
to shed water rapidly to the side
bitches, and with ample culverts and
drains. To keep your road dry main
tain the drainage in good condition.
Drag your roads after each rain;
dragging fills in the ruts, smOoths
the surface, and maintains the crown.
dragged the rain finds no place to
collect and soak into and soften the
surface. Unless the rain is of long
duration the surface is softened very
lIII1C AS OOOn do LnO oAIA IdO YEAS
ed and the road surface dried so that
the clay is not sticky, but while it is
still plastic, drag the road again. Any
depression or ruts which have been
formed during and after the rain are
thus filled, and the surface smoothed
iand plastered over with a thin
plaster of clay or earth which packs
and becomes very hard under pass
ing traffic. Therefore, in order to
make and keep your road dry, first
provide for good drainage and then
maintain the good drainage system
dragging after each. rain. Diligent
attention to these points will, in gen
eral, insure an earth road fairly pass
able at all times and very good most
of the time.-American Highway AS
ISOLATION.