The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1921-09-22
Modem Methods
Supplants Man
Only Twenty Men
Employed I'm Con-
structing Road

AS far as the Royer-F Ferguson COM
pal4y is concerned oad-building meth
cos nave advanced to such a stage of
perfectlon that only fifteen to twenty
IaOofers ae now required to build a
stretch of road 25 miles long, where
very few years ago so to 100 men
were employed with picks, shovels.
wheelbarroWs and what-not to accom-
pllsh the same ends. Modernity of
road building methods is well demon
strated in the construction of the
High Point t-Winston-Salem concrete
highway, a mile or so of which is al
ready completed at the High Point end
Of the line. A visit to the scene of
operations is quite interesting.
The Royer-Ferguson company, in
corporated, contractors, have estab-
llshed system of coordination that
reaches the the points of road build
/ 1Ag. With only Is or II laborers at
work on the road proper the company
is laying from 300 to $50 feet of fin
1shed road per day. The system is not
unlike that employed by an army. The
base OF operations, located on East
Washington street at the Southern
railway tracks, is connected by truck
and narrow-gauge railroad with the
front line of operation; namely, the
actual building of the road.
At East Washington street the
material is unloaded from freight
cars-cements, sand and crushed
stone: Through enormous hoppers
the three ingredients are loaded into
steel boxes of three compartments
each ingredient in it's proper proper
ton. The steel boxes are about the
size of an ordinary dry-goods box
These are loaded onto trucks and spe-
cially built trailers, on which the ma
terial is conveyed over the first lap
of the journey, which is out Main
street to the beginning of the road.
Here the cargo is transferred from
freight train that is propelled by a
powerful little gasoline locomotive.
Even the transferring is done by a
crane that lifts the steel boxes from
the trucks to the train.
The narrow gauge tracks, resemb-
ling those of a roller coaster, are
| laid parable with the road for a dist.
ance of more than mile. Two trains
are operated over it and there are
switches to allow the trains to pass
and keep the big mixer that does the
actual laying of concrete busy all the
time. The trains, of ten or dozen
cars, after being laden with the steel
boxes Of material, hustle in thor
oughly business-like manner down to
i the end of the line. There the mixer,
a big machine mounted on caterpil-
lar tractor, is mixing the concrete in
the final processing before dumping it
on the road. The contract on this
particular job requires that the con-
crete be put through the mixing pro-
! cess for a minute and half; said by
experts to guarantee good job. A
man employed by the state highway
commission holds a watch on the ma
chine to see that each batch is mixed
not less than the required time.
The mixing machine works back4
wards and is followed up by a grader
mounted on track eighteen feet wide,
the exact width of the road, that
smooths and lamps the concrete and
of canvass that smooths the surface.
Steel moulds similar to ordinary track
rails are laid eighteen feet apart and
these serve as the track for the finish
er as well as the mould for the con-
crete. The finisher is so constructed
that it puts two-inch crown on the
road, which has a thickness of six
inches at the outside and eight inches
in the center. None of the concrete
work is touched by hand except where
trowel is run to smooth the outer
edges. The finishing machine is pro-
PEELED by an air cooled gasoline motor
that operates the tamper, as we'll as
drives the machine up and down the
track.
r One ma;a operates the mixer and
one man is on the fnisher. The La
borers go ahead of the outfit, grade
the road and prepare the way for the
laying of the miniature railway that
transports the material. Were it not
for this work there would be scarcely
any need for labor.
A "follow-up" crew lays strips Of
burlap over the road to prevent drying
out too soon under the heat of the
sun. Theb urlap is left on for twenty.
four hours, or until the concrete has
"set" sufficiently to allow it to be
covered with a thin layer of earth.
This layer is thrown upon the surface
and kept damp to prevent the concrete
from drying too quickly and breaking
with "sun cracks" The layer Of
earth is left on the road for twenty
one days to protect it from sudden
changes in the weather.