The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-02-15
SMITH DISCUSSES
ROAD CONSTRUCTION

(This is the third article of series
written by Roy d. Smith,
If our West Side roads had been in
the same condition this year as they
were then, / am certain the apples
would never have reached the market
in the time they did this year.
On the West Side in the Oak Grove,
Belmont, Barrett and Frankton dis
tricts, we hardly had a piece of road of
any length that was very good summer
or winter, but since that time, these
districts have had added to the miles
and miles of good gravel roads which
have been the delight and pleasure of
many, and the fame of some of our
gravel roads reached away into the
land of Mutnomah.
Now, we of this side perhaps may be
little vain on this subject, but it is
true nevertheless.
We had every advantage of our East
Side friends, as We had fine lot of
natural road material made and placed
easily in our reach.
And just at this stage | came in
touch with this problem as was ap-
pointed supervisor in the Barrett dis
trict. am free to say that have had
variety of experiences too numerous
to mention in detail, but if what have
learned in the past seven years con-
stantly on the job of building and main
tanning our roads, am glad and will
ing to impart such of this knowledge
as may appear of any worth to the
public on this subject.
will endeavor TO coa.ine myself to
facts and experiences. One of the first
things which came to my notice was
| that the roads had been graded and
graveled in many places entirely on
the extreme limits of the outer edges
of the roads, and even at times to
avoid a stump or boulder the road
would get clear off the 60 feet of the
right of way. Now claim that every
bit of work on road off to one side of
the right Of way is an absolute waste
of money, and no argument can sus-
tain for moment such procedure.
Again, in many places the center was
a foot, and in some cases two feet,
lower than the immediate sides of the
road, and of course every rain or snow
only increased and aggravated the con-
dition.
As to trees and shade, we had both
in profusIon shade and dust in the
summer and impossible mud in the
winter, the roads had no bitches to
speak of, and drainage was largely a
thing which had been almost entirely
neglected. These were a few of the
immediate vexing questions.
| Of course, the road that is bad is al
ways worse in the close proximity of
each individual. All or a great many
wanted certain bad places remedied in
front of their places, and of course
this could not be done all at once. So
decided to begin to build one piece of
road at time or go as far as the
money would permit. / selected che
mile of road beginning at the corner of
Jericho Lane or the Barrett road which
passes in front of the Barrett school,
house. believe that this was the
worst and the heaviest travelled road
in the district at that time. First,
removed a large amount of forest re-
serve timber-huge trees which stood
in the center of the road. large bould-
ers and many bull pines from the sides.
then graded this road to the center
cut good deep bitches on both sides and
put in culverts to convey the water un-
der the road and also have the water
which was compelled to parallel the
road for any distance to trapel on the
lowest side then graveled this road
through the entire mile, putting on 600
cubic yards at cost of $500. The
teams in very short time packed it
good and hard, and by carefully keep
ing the depressions filled this mile of
road has been success, in my judg-
ment, for the last four years. In fact,
this mile of road, being we'll drained
and without excessive shade, has stood
the recent frost without a single place
showing that it had affected the road
bed In fact, this is the only gravel
road in this district that was not dam
aged some by the recent frost; the only
other piece of road that entirely es-
capped frost damage was the gavel top
road on the macadam.