Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1920-12-17
THE KIND OF ROADS
HIGHLAND SHOULD BUILD
By Rembert D. McNeer)

BY Rembert D. McNeer)
The kind of roads any county
should build is determined by the
amount of traffic the road IS to carry,
the kind of soil on which it is to be
built, the material available, and the
cost of constructing the various types
of road. No one kind of road is
suitable for all communities.
1t is we'll to have in mind also that
there is no absolutely permanent road
All of them have to be repaired, and
need care to keep them in condition.
The cost of upkeep must therefore be
considered in determining the best
kind of road to build Let us con-
slider some of the various kinds of
road:
A vitrifed brick road holds the
record for lowest maintenance ex-
pense; but the expense of building
in this county would prohibit such a
road. Practically the same is true
of concrete and of asphalt roads.
Besides the amount of traffic does not
demand them. In some sections
sand-clay road is all that is needed.
The writer has seen such roads in
Eastern North Carolina which carri-
ed heavy traffic in all weather con-
ditions existing there. Two things
make the sand-clay road impossible
for Highland: First, the sand-clay
road is clay on sand. The sandy
soil is porous and carries off the wa
ter. Highland has clay soil which
retains the water and turns roadways
into mud holes. Second, the heavy
freezes in this section would destroy
a sand-clay road.
The kinds of road that we must
recond with are dirt roads, water
bound macadam, and gravel.
The macadam to be used where the
traffic is the heaviest and the gravel
or the dirt at other places. All of
these roads have. to be we'll graded
and drained. The drainage demands
that they be we'll crowned in the CEN
ter. The dirt road is not to be con-
sidered where the traffic is heavy,
nor where there is a clay soil. A
road built through shale and we'll
drained and crowned will meet most
all demands made upon it. How
ever it is impossible to make road
by surfacing with sha1e. 1t is too
soft for surface material where it has
not the solid shale underneath.
The gravel road will meet the
needs in the sections where there is
no shale, except where the traffic is
very heavy. A gravel road to stand
must have a good foundation. Where
the ground is low this should be a
bed of large rock. The gravel should
be from six to ten inches thick. The
| top gravel should be from the size of
hicory nut to that of hulled wal
nut & free from earth. One thing that
makes against the Monterey-Vander-
pool road is too much soil with the
gravel, especially with the gravel
which has been put on in redress
ing the road. A little soil helps to
bind the gravel, but too much de-
stroys the road.
| The macadam road should be the
type adopted for all the main lines
of travel. When l say macadam I
do not mean that Highland should
throw away vast sums of money in
building such costly things as the
mile of road at Meadow Dale What
I mean by macadam in a rock surfac-
ed road on agood foundation. The
Meadow Dale road is that, but by fol-
lowing the State specifications they
have built up a tower Of cost which
like Babel gives promise of reaching
the sky. After the roadway is grad
ed and drained a layer of stone crush
ed to the size of a hulled walnut can
be spread on ten or twelve inches
deep and left for the traffic to beat
wdown, which it will do in a few
weeks. Where the wheels usually run
there will be groves cut out. AS
soon as the stone is fairly we'll set
tied the road should be gone over
and these wheel trenches filled with
frsh material. Then the road will
beat down smooth and solid. The
result will be road as good as can
be made by the expensive process of
continually smoothing, and sprink-
ling, and rolling. The writer has
seen many miles of road built this
way in Clark County. There they
found it possible to build more miles
of road by following this plan of con-
struction and using only the county
money than by following the State
specifications and receiving help from
the State. -.
In my next and last paper on
Highland Roads" I will try to point
out how we can manage to build our
roads