Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-06-15
DRAIN THE ROADS
First and Most important Move
In Highway Construction.

Year by year people everywhere are
taking hold in larger way of the work
of road construction or road improve
ment; and along this line they are ex-
pending more time, effort and money.
And as the work goes along it becomes
more and more apparent that the first
and most essential move towards max
ing road right and keeping it right is
to get proper and adequate draining.
Along this line the Wisconsin Highway
Commission makes suggestions as fol-
lows:
The past two months or more has
probably seen the ordinary roads IN
Wisconsin in worse condition than at
any time in recent years.
Probably due to great depth OF frost
and the fact that because OF cold
weather, this frost has gone out very
slowly, there have been excessive ac-
cumuIations of water near the surface
of the ground which caused the roads
to be much worse than usual. Surface
drainage has been lacking, and under
ground drainage or tile drainage is al
most unknown.
1t is especially noticeable that at or
near the top of any hill of even moder-
ate height, there has been almost in
variably place badly cut through and
practically impossible. All in all, the
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much worse than it should be consider
ing the demands Of modern travel.
Before evidences of these sink holes
and springy places disappear, mark the
place of their occurrence, and sometime
during this year, have the side bitches
we'll opened alongside all of these
points SO that surface water will pe
carried off promptly and freely; and IN
the worst of these places, there should
be put in line oe or inch tile at
the side of the road which is next to
the higher ground, draining out to
some suitable outlet, backfilling the
trench with coarse gravel or small
stone Care as to surface drainage and
placing of tile at these spring holes will
Weld astounding results next spring in
the bettered condition of road surfaces.
If several times during the summer
the superintendents will go over the
roads in their charge Immediately after
rains, mark the points where water Is
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dry out, deepen the bitches SO as to en-
able the water to get away from these
points, good results will also be Sc
cured The trouble with all roads this
spring may be summed up in the few
words LACK of drainage.
There is no way in which road mon
ey can be spent to better advantage
than by marking these spring holes at
this time, curing them with open
bitches or tile drain, or both, when
they dry up, and after rains this sum-
mer marking all places where water
stands in the road bitches, afterward
correcting these road bitches so that
WdI61 Will III" 1ICC1J HuiShAJ
along and away from the road.
This drainage is much more import
ant than just running over OF your
road mileage with the road machine
without the drainage attended to- Road
grading and road dragging are excel
lent if drainage is first provided for,
but practically useless if it has not
been provided for. If you can't get
both the drainage and road machine
work done, by all means give up the
road machine work.
Cannot everybody working together
make 1916 year distinguished in the
road history of Wisconsin by the fact
that more intense and Intelligent action
was taken in that year to secure proper
drainage on all roads than ever before
in the history of the State?