Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-06-08
DRAINING
THE ROADS
BY L. AMUNDSON, C. H. C.
Continued from last week.)

CONTINUED from last week
AS my experience in road building
has all been during modern traffic and
what is called the motor age, it should
not surprise anyone when | say that l
have never been in favor of macadam
roads, and have from the first con-
tinually recommended grading, drain
age and permanent culyerts.
When | say drain the roads, | don't
just mean the side bitches, because a
thoroughly drained road must first
have good side bitches, second and just
as important to a good road as the
first is to keep the road crowned with
the greatest road draining machine
ever invented for graded road call
ed the ROAD DRAG.
The road drag should be started as
soon as the road is graded after the
first rain before the road gets too
dry and from one to three trips should
be made overthe road after every rain.
the third stage in draining a road is
practiced least of all, probably on ac-
count of not thoroughly understanding
and that it is special road probleri
but not necessarily complicated nor
hard to take care of and is the doctor
ing of these springy or heavy spots
which are nearly always found in cuts,
side hills, and even on top of ridges
and hills, but never found on a fill in
the road.
The power is not given us of seeing
the under ground formation, the di-
rection and the depth of water seep-
age (unless to those who know how to
use the witch hazeD and when the wa
ter seeps through the soil under our
roads and our roads having less pro
lection from freezing, freeze to a
greater depth and seal up these little
water veins, and while seepage con-
tinues to the road heaving starts and
continues until water and cold can
raise the road no more. When warm
weather comes, the underground cake
of ice will melt on top first. The out
let is probably the last thing to thaw
out and consequently, we have lay
er of earth laying on the top of the
Yater, forming a very spongy road
surface and continues getting
worse until the warm weather allows
nature to take care ofthis under
ground water seepage.
The number ofthese bad places are
regulated by shallow or deep freez-
ing of road bed, so it is safer and
cheaper to let the freezing weather
develop these places and afterwards
proceed to drain them by digging a
trench down the center through these
springy places about eighteen inches
wide and not less than three and one
half feet deep to an outlet or side
ditch and fill the same within a foot of
the top with small stone. DRAIN tile
may also be used, where stone is
scarce).
Nothing but deep drainage or fill
ing these springy places with field
rock of a thickness sufficient to sup
port the traffic will be found adequate.
The draining and grading up of our
roads in clay soil should serve sever
al purposes.
FIRST-It gives the road bed a
chance to settle and develop weak
spots which cannot be detected on a
new or changed road bed.
SECONDLY grading, more mile
age can be built more people served
within a short time with good earth
road.
THIRD-We can be developing prac
teal knowledge from the surfaced
roads now being built, good, bad, and
indifferent, though the intention is
to build them right.
FOURTH-As nearly everybody in
Wood County knows we have tried all
the different kinds ofturn-pike grades
from the underwater and mud. cor