Part 2

Ordinary macadam pavement is composed of carefully selected stone and gravel thoroughly rolled into a compact mass, with the material so graded that the coarsest stones are on the bottom and the finer binding material is on the top. Such a roadway proved very satisfactory until the general advent of the automobile. In order to resist the digging or scratching effect of the driving wheels of high speed motor cars, which is technically called the shear, it is necessary to use tar or some other binding material for holding the particles of stone more firmly together.

Tar Macadam.

Tar macadam roads are constructed the same as other macadam roads, except that the top layers of broken stone are covered with hot tar before they are rolled into place.

Costs Compared.

If $70 per mile be taken as the cost of constructing an earth road two rods wide, the cost of building one mile of gravel road will build some fifty miles of earth road; one mile of ordinary macadam will build 300 miles of earth road; one mile of tar macadam will build 360 miles of earth road; and one mile of asphalt pavement will construct 600 miles of earth road.

The Earth Road a Portion of Better Roads.

An important argument in favor of the earth road is the fact that when it is laid out and constructed, it is the beginning of a first-class gravel road, a first-class macadam road, or a first-class tar macadam road, so that by getting the earth road made, the individual interested primarily in the construction of hard roads has succeeded in getting the hard road well begun.

Roads in Sand and Soft Clay.

While nearly everywhere in Utah the soil is such that it will make a good earth road, there are parts in which the soft clay is filled with alkali, and there are other parts where there are extensive stretches of sand. Neither of these alone can be made into an earth road that will be a good, passable road all the year round. The sand road is best in wet weather, while the alkali road is best in dry weather. If, however, the soft clay and the sand are so mixed on the road that the clay just fills the openings or interstices between the grains of sand, and yet this quantity is not so large as to keep the grains of sand from touching or coming in contact with one another, the road, if properly and constantly maintained, will be a good one.

Cost of Maintenance.

Since proper maintenance is an important part of the work on ordinary roads, its cost will be considered briefly.

The repairs and maintenance on an asphalt pavement cost from 9 to 60 cents per square yard annually, or for a two rod road the cost is from $1,750 to $11,600 per mile per year; on a tar macadam road the cost is from $2,000 to $4,000 per mile per year; on a gravel road it is about $40 per mile per annum, while for $5 per mile per year an earth road can be kept in a condition of repair that will surprise those who have not used the split-log drag on such a road.

As already stated, narrower roads will answer all necessary demands in many parts, and maintaining such will reduce the cost proportionately. A well kept narrow road is infinitely better than a broad one in bad condition.

Earth Roads Poorly Kept.

Concerning the maintenance and the construction of roads, Mr. Charles H. Hoyt of the United States Office of Public Roads, writes:[5] “It is sad when we have to say that because of neglect the roads that have already been built have been allowed to go to pieces and have not been properly maintained. Even our ordinary dirt roads are horrible examples of this statement.”

On the value to a community of good roads, Mr. Hoyt says, in the same article: “Any country which longer continues to insist upon remaining stagnant concerning highways, will soon be classed behind the times and avoided by progressive citizens.”

Mr. D. Howard King, Expert on Split-log Drag, Office of Public Roads, has prepared a bulletin called Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 321, on “The Use of the Split-Log Drag on Earth Roads.” All who are interested in this subject should secure a copy of this excellent paper from the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and make a careful study of the same.

[Footnote 5: The Cornell Civil Engineer, Dec., 1909.]

Drag Reduces Dust.

On the use of this drag the bulletin says, in part: “Clay, when mixed with water and thoroughly worked, becomes remarkably tough and impervious to water. If compacted in this condition it becomes extremely hard. Another valuable result of dragging is the reduction of dust, for the particles of clay adhere so tenaciously that there is but little wear when the surface is smooth. Dust on an earth road is due to the breaking up under traffic of the frayed and upturned edges of ruts and hoof prints. If the surface is smoothed after each rain and the road dries hard and even, no edges are exposed to crushing, and the only dust which forms is that due to actual wear of the road surface.”

Examples and Their Cost.

The bulletin quotes Mr. F. P. Sanborne[6] as follows: “The least expense per mile (for dragging) was about $1.50; the greatest, a little over $6; the average expense per mile for five and one-half miles, a little less than $3.” Continuing, Mr. Sanborne says: “The writer has lived by this piece of road all his life, and although we have had the extremes of weather this season, both wet and dry, not for forty years has the road in question been so free from mud and dust. Parties who have known the road all their lives are agreed that it never was in so good a condition a season through.”

[Footnote 6: Report of Highway Commission of Maine, 1906, p. 112.]

“The total expense for twelve months on twenty-eight miles of road in Iowa,” continues Mr. Hoyt, “averaged $2.40 per mile, and the roads were reported to have been ‘like a race track’ the larger portion of the year.

A number of farmers in Ray county, Missouri, employed one of their number to drag a five-mile stretch. He received compensation at the rate of $3 per day. When the end of the year came and a settlement was made, the cost for the year was found to be $1.66 per mile. The road is a tough clay, and my informant declares it was always much better than the other roads in the neighborhood.

Prof. William Robertson of the Minnesota Agricultural station, after a year’s experience in dragging a ‘main road made entirely of gumbo, without any sand or gravel, and which during the past year has shown no defects either by rutting or development of soft places,’ fixes the cost of the work at not to exceed $5 per mile.”

Since in Maine, Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota, the four states just referred to, there is a comparatively great annual rainfall, while in Utah the rainfall is comparatively small, the cost of maintaining the earth road in Utah will be correspondingly less and the results will be proportionately greater.

If the state legislature, the Automobile Club of Utah, some other organization or some philanthropic individual, will offer an annual prize of $1000 to the county actually constructing and maintaining during the year the best five miles of earth road, the number of excellent roads that will be built in the next few years will be a most pleasant surprise to all who are anxious to see good roads constructed.

The better, and, in fact, the best roads will come along naturally after we have a first-class system of earth roads built and well maintained generally throughout the state. When once the efforts of all our good-roads enthusiasts are united on constructing and maintaining first-class earth roads everywhere, the road problem in Utah will be solved, and our road systems will be the pride of the whole state.

What is the State School of Mines?

The State School of Mines is the college of engineering of the University of Utah. It is an organic part of the University and enjoys all the advantages that spring from an intimate connection between a technical college and a modern university.

COURSES.

The school offers seven four-year courses leading to bachelor’s degrees, also graduate courses leading to the degree of master of science in several lines of engineering. The seven four-year courses are in MINING ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, CIVIL ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, GENERAL ENGINEERING, and IRRIGATION ENGINEERING, the first part of the course in irrigation engineering being given, however, by the Agricultural College at Logan. Graduate courses are offered in each of these lines of engineering.

FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT.

The school is provided with a first-class equipment to do its work. The laboratories are all well furnished, in this respect ranking with the foremost colleges of the country. The teachers are all specialists and the methods of instruction modern. For mining work the location of the school is unexcelled, Salt Lake City being the center of a great mining region, which makes it easy to provide abundant and inexpensive field work.

EXPENSES.

The expenses at the school are very low, the cost of registration and tuition being from ten to twenty-five dollars per year. The school is certainly among the most inexpensive good engineering colleges in the country for a student to attend.

Catalogues and illustrated circulars are sent free upon request.

SKELTON PUBLISHING CO. SALT LAKE CITY