Part 3

“The size of stones for a road has been described in contracts in several different ways, sometimes as the size of a hen’s egg, sometimes at half a pound weight. These descriptions are very vague, the first being an indefinite size, and the latter depending on the density of the stone used, and _neither_ being attended to in the execution. The size of stone used on a road must be in due proportion to the space occupied by a wheel of ordinary dimensions on a smooth level surface, this point of contact will be found to be, longitudinally about an inch, and every piece of stone put into a road, which exceeds an inch in any of its dimensions, is mischievous.”

“The roads in Scotland are worse than those in England, although, materials are more abundant, of better quality, and labour at _least_ as cheap, and the toll duties are nearly double; this is because road-making, that is the surface, is even worse understood in Scotland than in England. By a late discussion in Parliament on the subject of Mail Coaches paying toll, it was universally allowed that the roads in Scotland were in a deplorable state, and in their circumstances, bankrupt.”

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NOTE.—_It is understood, that the Postmaster-General was obliged to give up the mail-coach from Glasgow to Ayr, on the road towards Ireland, on account of the expence of tolls, and the bad condition of the road; there being ten turnpike gates on thirty-four miles of road._

During nearly five years that the writer has given his whole attention to the improvement of the Turnpike Roads, experience having confirmed his ideas on the subject, no endeavours have been spared, to extend the benefits which have already resulted to the Bristol district, over the whole country. The very limited means possessed by any individual for influencing this important branch of domestic economy, has occasioned frequent attempts to convey instructions for road-making in writing. This method has never been entirely successful; it being impossible to acquire a mechanical art without actual practice; or to obtain any just ideas of it, beyond the first principles, from books.

These principles are, that a road ought to be considered as an artificial flooring forming a strong, smooth, solid surface, at once capable of carrying great weight, and over which carriages may pass without meeting any impediment.

_Directions for Repair of an old Road, being the substance of a Communication made to a Committee of the Honourable House of Commons in_ 1811, _and published with the Report by Order of the House, with additions and alterations, deduced from actual practice during the last three years._

_1st February, 1819._

No addition of materials is to be brought upon a road, unless in any part of it be found that there is not a quantity of clean stone equal to ten inches in thickness.

The stone already in the road is to be loosened up and broken, so as no piece shall exceed six ounces in weight.

The road is then to be laid as flat as possible, a rise of three inches from the centre to the side is sufficient for a road thirty feet wide.

The stones when loosened in the road are to be gathered off by means of a strong heavy rake, with teeth two and a half inches in length, to the side of the road, and there broken, and on no account are stones to be broken _on_ the road.

When the great stones have been removed, and none left in the road exceeding six ounces, the road is to be put in shape and a rake employed to smooth the surface, which will at the same time bring to the surface the remaining stone, and will allow the dirt to go down.

When the road is so prepared, the stone that has been broken by the side of the road is then to be carefully spread on it—this is rather a nice operation, and the future quality of the road will greatly depend on the manner in which it is performed. The stone must not be laid on in shovels full, but scattered over the surface, one shovel full following another and spreading over a considerable space.

Only a small space of road should be lifted at once; five men in a gang should be set to lift it _all across_: two men should continue to pick up and rake off the large stones and to form the road for receiving the broken stone, the other three should break stones—the broken stone to be laid on as soon as the piece of road is prepared to receive it, and then break up another piece; two or three yards at one lift is enough.

The proportioning the work among the five men must of course be regulated by the nature of the road; when there are many very large stones, the three breakers may not be able to keep pace with the two men employed in lifting and forming, and when there are few large stones the contrary may be the case; of all this the Surveyor must judge and direct.

But while it is recommended to lift and relay roads which have been made with large stone, or with large stone mixed with clay, chalk or other mischievous materials, there are many cases in which it would be highly unprofitable to lift and relay a road, even if the materials should have been originally too large.

The road between Cirencester and Bath is made of stone too large in size, but it is of so friable a nature that in lifting it becomes sand; in this case I recommended cutting down the high places, keeping the surface smooth and gradually wearing out the materials now in the road, and then replacing them with some stone of a better quality properly prepared.

In like manner a part of the road in the Bath district is made of freestone which it would be unprofitable to lift.

At Egham in Surrey, it was necessary to remove the whole road to separate the small portion of valuable materials from the mass of soft matter of which it was principally composed which was removed at considerable expence, before a road could be again made upon the site.

Other cases of several kinds have occurred where a different method must be adopted, but which it is impossible to specify, and must be met by the practical skill of the Officer whose duty it may be to superintend the repair of a road, and who must constantly recur to general principles. These principles are uniform, however much circumstances may differ, and they must form the guide by which his judgment must be always directed.

When additional stone is wanted on a road that has consolidated by use, the old hardened surface of the road is to be loosened with a pick, in order to make the fresh materials unite with the old.

Carriages, whatever be the construction of their wheels, will make ruts in a new-made road until it consolidates, however well the materials may be prepared, or however judiciously applied; therefore a careful person must attend for some time after the road is opened for use, to rake in the track made by wheels.

The only proper method of breaking stones, both for effect and economy, is by persons _sitting_; the stones are to be placed in small heaps, and women, boys, or old men past hard labour, must sit down with small hammers and break them, so as none shall exceed six ounces in weight.

_The Tools to be used are,—_

Strong picks, but short from the handle to the point, for lifting the road.

Small hammers of about one pound weight in the head, the face the size of a new shilling, well steeled, with a short handle.

Rakes with wooden heads, ten inches in length, and iron teeth about two and a half inches in length, very strong for raking out the large stones when the road is broken up, and for keeping the road smooth after being relaid, and while it is consolidating.

Very light broad-mouthed shovels, to spread the broken stone and to form the road.

Every road is to be made of broken stone without mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any other matter that will imbibe water, and be affected with frost; nothing is to be laid on the clean stone on pretence of _binding_; broken stone will combine by its own angles into a smooth solid surface that cannot be affected by vicissitudes of weather, or displaced by the action of wheels, which will pass over it without a jolt, and consequently without injury.

PRICES.

The price of lifting a rough road, breaking the stones, forming the road, smoothing the surface, cleaning out the watercourses, and replacing the stone, leaving the road in a finished state, has been found in practice to be from one penny to two-pence per superficial yard, lifted four inches deep; the variation of price depends on the greater or lesser quantity of stone to be broken.

At two-pence per yard, a road of six yards wide will cost, therefore, one shilling per running yard, or 88l. per mile.

Any rough road may be rendered smooth and solid at this price, unless it be weak and require an addition of stone, or require some very material alteration of shape.

Breaking stone has been reduced in price by the use of more proper hammers, and the sitting posture.

The Commissioners at Bristol used to pay fifteen pence per ton for limestone from Durdham Down, for the use of their roads, and broken to a size above twenty ounces.—Stone is now procured from the same place, broken so as none exceed six ounces for ten-pence per ton! and the workmen are very desirous of contracts at that rate, because the heavy work is done by the men, the light work with small hammers by the wives and children, so that whole families are employed.

In Sussex, the proportion is greater between former and present prices; the breaking of flint cost at one time two shillings per ton, and is now done, by introducing a better method and fitter tools at one shilling per ton.

By a more judicious preparation and application of materials the quantity of stone consumed in roads is decreased, by which a great saving of expence is made, and with this great advantage, that the saving is in horse labour of cartage, while the labour price is given to men, and in such a manner as includes boys from the age of ten upwards, women and old men past the age of being able to labour hard. The proportion of men and horse labour in the Bristol district, under the former management, was

One-fourth to men’s labour, Three-fourths to horse labour.

Under a better system of management the proportion has been exactly reversed: during half a year that an exact account was kept, there was paid.

For men’s, women and children’s labour, £3088. For horses’ labour 1035.

This immense advantage is presented in every part of the country, as roads are confined to no particular place, and are universally in want of repair: ample funds are already provided for every useful and proper purpose, although at present misapplied in almost every part of the kingdom, while the labourers are in want of that employment which it ought to afford them.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT, AND THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Having communicated to your Honourable Board, some observations on making and repairing roads, in February, 1819, I beg leave to add the following, which have arisen from increased experience on the subject, and also from a desire of calling your attention to the effects of the late severe winter on the roads of the country, and the confirmation afforded to the opinions I have endeavoured to introduce on the construction of roads.

During the late winter, and particularly in the month of January, 1820, when the frost was succeeded by a sudden thaw, accompanied by the melting of snow, the roads of the kingdom broke up in a very alarming manner, and to an extent that created great loss and inconvenience by the interruption of communication, and the delay of the mails, and also occasioned a very heavy extra expenditure by the Post-office.

The obvious cause of this defect of the roads, was the admission of water from the loose and unskilful method of their construction. Previous to the severe frost, the roads were filled with water, which had penetrated through the ill-prepared and unskilfully laid materials: this caused an immediate expansion of the whole mass during the frost, and upon a sudden thaw, the roads became quite loose, and the wheels of carriages penetrated to the original soil, which was also saturated with water, from the open state of the road. By this means, many roads became altogether impassable, while the whole were rendered deep and inconvenient to be travelled upon.

In particular, it was observed, that _all_ the roads of which chalk was a component part, became, generally, impassable; and even, that the roads made over chalk soils gave way in most places. This evidently proceeded from the absorbent quality of chalk, which renders it so tenacious of water, that I consider its use to be one of the most dangerous errors in road making. I was induced on former occasions to recommend particular care in making roads over chalk soils, and to advise a discontinuance of the practice of mixing chalk, clay, or any other matter that holds water, with the materials of a road. The experience of last winter has confirmed this opinion, and has shewn the ruinous effects of the former method.

Of all the roads which have been thoroughly re-made, according to the directions which I had the honour to submit to your Honourable Board last spring, not one has given way, nor has any delay taken place through the severity of the late season.

As every winter has, in some degree, presented such inconveniences, and as it has been observed that very severe winters occur in England every six or seven years, it is of great consequence to consider of the means of constructing the roads of the kingdom in such a manner as shall prevent their being in future affected by any change of weather or season.

The roads can never be rendered thus perfectly secure, until the following principles be fully understood, admitted, and acted upon: namely, that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of traffic: that while it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight without sinking, and that it does in fact carry the road and the carriages also; that this native soil must previously be made quite dry, and a covering impenetrable to rain, must then be placed over it, to preserve it in that dry state; that the thickness of a road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to form such impervious covering, and never by any reference to its _own_ power of carrying weight.

The erroneous opinion so long acted upon, and so tenaciously adhered to, that by placing a large quantity of stone under the roads, a remedy will be found for the sinking into wet clay, or other soft soils, or in other words, that a road may be made sufficiently strong, _artificially_, to carry heavy carriages, though the sub-soil be in a wet state, and by such means to avert the inconveniences of the natural soil receiving water from rain, or other causes, has produced most of the defects of the roads of Great Britain.

At one time I had formed the opinion that this practice was only a useless expence, but experience has convinced me that it is likewise positively injurious.

It is well known to every skilful and observant road-maker, that if strata of stone of various sizes be placed as a road, the largest stones will constantly work up by the shaking and pressure of the traffic, and that the only mode of keeping the stones of a road from motion, is to use materials of a uniform size from the bottom. In roads made upon large stones as a foundation, the perpetual motion, or change of the position of the materials, keeps open many apertures through which the water passes.

It has also been found, that roads placed upon a hard bottom, wear away more quickly than those which are placed upon a soft soil. This has been apparent upon roads where motives of economy, or other causes, have prevented the road being lifted to the bottom at once; the wear has always been found to diminish, as soon as it was possible to remove the hard foundation. It is a known fact, that a road lasts much longer over a morass than when made over rock. The evidence produced before the Committee of the House of Commons, shewed the comparison on the road between Bristol and Bridgwater, to be as five to seven in favour of the wearing on the morass, where the road is laid on the naked surface of the soil, against a part of the same road made over rocky ground.

The practice common in England, and universal in Scotland, on the formation of a new road, is, to dig a trench below the surface of the ground adjoining, and in this trench to deposit a quantity of large stones; after this, a second quantity of stone, broken smaller, generally to about seven or eight pounds weight; these previous beds of stone are called the bottoming of the road, and are of various thickness, according to the caprice of the maker, and generally in proportion to the sum of money placed at his disposal. On some new roads, made in Scotland, in the summer of 1819, the thickness exceeded three feet.

That which is properly called the road, is then placed on the bottoming, by putting large quantities of broken stone or gravel, generally a foot or eighteen inches thick, at once upon it.

Were the materials of which the road itself is composed, properly selected, prepared, and laid, some of the inconveniences of this system might be avoided; but in the careless way in which this service is generally performed, the road is as open as a sieve to receive water; which penetrates through the whole mass, is received and retained in the trench, whence the road is liable to give way in all changes of weather.

A road formed on such principles has never effectually answered the purpose which the road-maker should constantly have in view; namely, to make a secure, level flooring, over which carriages may pass with safety, and equal expedition, at all seasons of the year.

If it be admitted, as I believe it is now very generally, that in this kingdom an artificial road is only required to obviate the inconvenience of a very unsettled climate; and that water with alternate frost and thaw, are the evils to be guarded against, it must be obvious that nothing can be more erroneous than providing a reservoir for water under the road and giving facility to the water to pass through the road into this trench, where it is acted upon by frost to the destruction of the road.

As no artificial road can ever be made so good, and so useful as the natural soil in a _dry state_, it is only necessary to procure, and preserve this dry state of so much ground as is intended to be occupied by a road.

The first operation in making a road should be the reverse of digging a trench. The road should not be sunk below, but rather raised above, the ordinary level of the adjacent ground, care should at any rate be taken, that there be a sufficient fall to take off the water, so that it should always be some inches below the level of the ground upon which the road is intended to be placed: this must be done, either by making drains to lower ground, or if that be not practicable, from the nature of the country, then the soil upon which the road is proposed to be laid, must be raised by addition, so as to be some inches above the level of the water.

Having secured the soil from under water, the road-maker is next to secure it from rain water, by a solid road, made of clean, dry stone, or flint, so selected, prepared, and laid, as to be perfectly impervious to water: and this cannot be effected, unless the greatest care be taken, that no earth, clay, chalk, or other matter, that will hold or conduct water, be mixed with the broken stone; which must be so prepared and laid, as to unite by its own angles into a firm, compact, impenetrable body.

The thickness of such road is immaterial, as to its strength for carrying weight; this object is already obtained by providing a dry surface, over which the road is to be placed as a covering, or roof, to preserve it in that state: experience having shewn, that if water passes through a road, and fill the native soil, the road, whatever may be its thickness, loses its support, and goes to pieces.

In consequence of an alteration in the line of the turnpike road, near Rownham Ferry, in the parish of Ashton, near Bristol, it has been necessary to remove the old road. This road was lifted and relaid very skilfully in 1816; since which time it has been in contemplation to change the line, and consequently, it has been suffered to wear very thin. At present it is not above three inches thick in most places, and in none more than four: yet on removing the road it was found, that no water had penetrated, nor had the frost affected it during all the late winter; and the natural earth beneath the road was found perfectly dry.

Several new roads have been constructed an this principle within the last three years. Part of the great north road from London by Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire—two pieces of road on Durdham Down, and at Rownham Ferry, near Bristol—with several private roads, in the eastern part of Sussex.

None of those roads exceed six inches in thickness, and although that on the great north road is subjected to a very heavy traffic, (being only fifteen miles distant from London) it has not given way, nor was it affected by the late severe winter; when the roads between that and London became impassable, by breaking up to the bottom, and the mails and other coaches were obliged to reach London by circuitous routes. It is worthy of observation, that these bad roads cost more money per mile for their annual repair, than the original making of this useful new road.

Improvement of roads, upon the principle I have endeavoured to explain, has been rapidly extended during the last four years. It has been carried into effect, on various roads, and with every variety of material, in seventeen different counties. These roads being so constructed as to exclude water, consequently none of them broke up during the late severe winter; there was no interruption to travelling, nor any additional expense by the Post-office in conveying the mails over them, to the extent of upwards of one thousand miles of road.

Many new roads, and to a considerable extent, are projected for the ensuing season. Some of them are to be assisted by grants or loans from government, and it will be a great saving of property, and enable government to extend their assistance more effectually, if these roads be made in the most approved and economical manner.

The unnecessary expense attending the making of new roads in the manner hitherto practised, is one great cause of the present heavy debt upon the road trusts of the kingdom. The principal part of the large sums originally borrowed, have been sunk in the useless, and in my opinion, mischievous preparation, of a foundation. This debt presses heavily on the funds of all the roads in England, and, in many cases, absorbs almost their whole revenue in payment of interest. In Scotland this pressure is still more heavily felt: indeed it is not of uncommon occurrence in that country, for creditors to lose both principal and interest of their loans to roads.

This causes not only a great and unnecessary loss in the first instance, and a deficiency of means for ordinary repair, and maintenance of the roads, but it also discourages the formation of new roads. Were a better and more economical system generally adopted and acted upon, many great additions and improvements of the communications of the country would take place, from which, at present, the landholders are deterred, by fear of the extent of the expense, and the difficulty of obtaining loans of money.