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Underdrainage of Public Highways. The first and most important re quisite is the drainage. No matter what paterial you have at hand, no matter how carefully you may apply it, if your road is constantly satura ted with water, it will be a misera ble failure. The amount of water that the road will absorb without being injured, depends upon the soil. Sandy roads are very much better when thoroughly dampened, but if saturated they are soft as the thinnest mud. Clay roads are very hard when dry, and at this time present a surface which rivals the hardest gravel. Were it not for the dust which rises from the surface of dry clay roads with the least breath of air, they would be considered equal to our best stone or gravel roads. A wet clay road, however, is an altogether different thing, the hardness which characterized the dry road is no longer to be found, but in its place is a soft, jelly-like mass, without a fixed surface, and sometimes without any sensible bottom. A gravel road presents a ready means of escape for the water that falls upon it, and consequently it is not so much improved by drainage, but when thoroughly saturated with water it is much softened, and very much injured. In all improved methods of road building, thorough drainage is the important requisite; it forms the first principal operation in preparing the foundation. The noted road builders of Europe all insisted on this one thing. McAdam, the inventor of the broken stone roads, and Telford, a man who much improved the roads of McAdam, both insisted on thorough drainage of the foundation. HOW TO DRAIN ROADS, Now as to draining roads: The old methods were turnpiking and ditching. Turnpiking affords a val uable means of drainage; it elevates the road above the surrounding land, and thus permits the water which falls on the road to pass off. When turnpikes are properly made they are of much value, but as ordinarily made their efficiency is small in deed. The surface of the turnpiked road should have a single uniform slope from the bottom of the ditch to the center of the road. This slope should average about one inch to a foot, measured horizontally. It should not be greatest next the ditch and least in the center of the road. The slope of the outside of the ditch should not be steeper than four inches to a foot. The plow and scraper are the two implements most valuable in making a turnpike road. It will be found that after a turnpike is constructed there is a tendency for the crown to flatten, and even to grow concave, and wheel ruts form on the top. As poop as this happens the drainage of our road is impaired, mud holes and ruts form, and we find turnpiking no improvement. To remedy this evil we must give the road constant attention, useing for this purpose a road machine or leveling scraper, which crowds the dirt back on to the crown and fills up the ruts, thus restoring the convex form to the road. The side ditches demand un remitting attention; they should be made in such a way as to afford an unimpeded water course for the wa ter from the surface of the road. If they become choked up in places, the value of the turnpike is impaired or destroyed. To clean out the side ditches, the leveling scraper is an excellent implement, OPEN DITCHES. Road drainage with the open ditch is practiced only to a limited extent, and usually when practiced it is used in connection with the turnpike. In very wet marshes the open ditch is a necessity at first, but as it is liable to be filled and not very efficient at best, it is not good policy to depend on it for a longer time than possible. UNDERDRAINS. The use of the underdrain is prin cipally to remove water from the subsoil, consequently to be of much value for road drainage, it must be combined with a system of turn piking. Water does not readily pass through some soils when pack ed or puddled, so that if our roads are built in a convex form the water will pass to the sides, where it may be allowed to enter the underdrains. In constructing the road I would put under each side ditch formed in turnpiking an underdrain of three inch tile, covered in places with very coarse gravel or small stones; or if not two lines of tile, I would put one under the center of the road of four-inch tile. The cost of a three inch tile drain need not must ex ceed 50 cents per rod. It ' s necessary in some stiff clays to cover over the drains with gravel or some porous soil, but usually this will be necessary only for a few feet in each section of seven or eight rods in length. I am fully convinced that a well under-drained road, even on com mon soil, would be in many respects a good road, and it is certainly true that a wet foundation will not allow a good road to be formed with any material whatever. In the process of constructing improved roads we are not ready to apply the road met al—as the covering is called—until our road is in a proper condition to allow the water to pass off. After a properly drained foundation is made, our next step is to apply the road metal, or covering, in other words to form the road surface. THE USE OF TILES FOR ROAD DRAIN AGE: Ten or twelve years ago we laid tile under come of the pqllege drying to test their efficiency to remove the water. We soon discovered that to render them of any value for taking off surface water, they must be cov ered, at least in places, with some coarse gravel. ~I--well remember our experience on a bit of quite san dy ground. The drain was directly beneath the drive, and at a depth of about three feet, yet in one sag water would stand to the depth of several inches until it evaporated. We had to uncover the drain and fill with coarse gravel before the surface wa ter would pass off. In this case the drain was beneath the roadway. Another instance we had a similar experience, with the drain under the side ditch, but the soil was very heavy clay. In the last case we opened up holes once in two rods and filled with coarse gravel, and for the past ten years it has been a perfect job.—Prof. R. C. Carpenter, Agricultural College, Mich., in Drainage and Farm Journal.
Newspaper Details
Southern Live Stock Journal
Starkville, Mississippi, US
Thu, Jan 23, 1890
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Feb 2026
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