Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-01-27
PUBLIC ROADS
A BIC PROBLEM
UPKEEP OF VAST IMPORTANCE
Question of Maintenance Held
by Many to Be More lmpor-
tant Than Construction.
Maintenance or Construction? Which
is the More Important?

tirely too little attention by our high
way officials in every section OF the
United States and 1t is question
that is being particularly neglected by
some of our own officials. 1t is a
qdestion that highway engineers and
officials are divided upon, but on
which they have no right whatever
to be divided. There is only one
answer to the above question. Main
tenance is the more important.
Counties all over the country are
spending millions per annum in the
reconstruction of old roads and the
complete construction of new roads,
but they are not all providing for
the up-keep of the roads that they
have been building. They seem to
have gained the impression that their
roads, once we'll constructed, will
last forever, and will never need any
repairs. With a certain limitation,
this is practically true. But that
limitation may be called maintenance.
Maintenance should be started on any
type of road just as soon as it is
completed and accepted by the unit
paying lol ITO NoiSli uNlio''''
smallest unit is the township, so the
Superintendent should commence to
look after and maintain a road just
as soon as it has finally accepted it.
If this is done, there will be little,
If any, need for repairs on road,
barring those caused by unusual con-
ditions or an accident. The next and
most important unit is the county.
Would any of you highway officials,
the great majority OF whom use an
automobile in your daily work, pur-
chase that automobile and put no
maintenance on it? If you would,
you would soon find that your repair
bills were going to mount higher
each month until it would be cheaper
for you to throw the worn-out wreck
age into the scrap pile and purchase
another. And it is just the same with
a roadway, and particularly with sur
faced roadways of the pavement type.
If you do not take care OF the little
raveling in the water-bound macadam,
or the wear in the asphalt or tar
bound macadam, or the cracks in the
concrete, or the broken and spalled
bricks and the broken bond and grout
in the brick pavement, those little
defects that are certain to appear will
grow more rapidly until there is a
positive failure of the surface. This
failure will then spread in a great
many cases under the surface, or
under the surface and its foundation,
as the type of construction may be,
until other failures will be noted, and
1t will soon be cheaper to tear up the
old surface and entirely replace it
than to try to repair it. In this way,
the care of an automobile and the
care of paved roadway are entirely
similar, although it will be conceded
that the former will stand more abuse
and neglect than the latter.
Brick Road.
All of us who are familiar with
modern high-class types of paving
have seen many failures of every
type. We have seen the brick start
to spall off and the brick crack be-
tween the joints of the brick on each
side. There is where maintenance
should be started on this brick pave
ment. Where that one brick spalls
Of and the wearing surface becomes
lower than the other adjoining bricks
there is going to be slight jar as
vehicle traffic passes over it. The
surrounding bricks are going to soon
show signs of wear, and a pot hole
In fine brick roadway is going to
be the inevitable result if that single
bad brick is not cut out and replaced
with hard, sound, well-burned brick.
The removal of that brick, the replac-
Ing with perfect one and properly
brouting the replaced brick consti-
,tutes maintenance. If brick cracks
through on its narrow dimension,
there 10 possibly strain imposed
upon 1t, or there may have been a
slight crack in the brick, too small
to notice, during the culling, while
the pavement was being constructed
But In either case, the bond of the
pavement Is going to be broken
within comparatively short time
and the crack is going to expand. II
develops into a rut and there is q
failure, which needs repair.
Concrete Roads.
We have all seen the cracks tha
develop in the concrete pavement
We have never seen a concrete roac
of any length that did not crack t.
n greater or less degree. But as sool
rs those cracks appear, they shoult
be carefully cleaned out and fillet
with tar or tar and sand. There il
your maintenance on the concret
roads, but if it is not given mainte
nance at the very start, the road i
going to have Its full share o
of cracks and failures.
These arguments simply bring u
down to the original and openin,
question which prompted the writing
of this article: Maintenance or Con
structon? Which is the More I'm
portant2 There Is absolutely no us