ROADS AND STREETS 



5031) 



ROADS AND STREETS 



tirely superseded by brick-shaped blocks, which 

 are much more expensive and provide a much 

 smoother surface. Wood possesses the givat 

 advantage of silence, the heaviest traffic pass- 

 ing over it almost noi> K asly. The wood, usu- 

 ally cedar or yellow pine, undergoes a special 

 treatment called "pickling," or soaking the 

 blocks in creosote or tar. Wood pavement 

 wears unevenl}-, and is not economical, but its 

 increasing, as the smoothness of the road 

 and the silence of traffic are considered suffi- 

 cient compensation for the extra cost of up- 

 keep. 



Comparative Cost. The cost of paving a 

 street varies greatly according to local condi- 

 tion^. The initial cost of grading, the freight 

 charges on materials, the character of founda- 

 tions, conditions in the local labor market all 

 must be considered. Comparative costs, unless 

 based on similar conditions, are worse than use- 

 less. The following figures are careful esti- 

 mates which should not be taken as exact for 



every section, but are fairly accurate as a basis 

 of comparison. They have the advantage of 

 being based on similar conditions. 



Sand-clay, per mile of 15-foot road.. $600 to son 



Burnt-clay, per mile of 15-foot road 1,500 



Macadam, per mile of 15-foot road 5,000 



Concrete, per mile of 15-foot road 10,000 



Asphalt, per mile of 15-foot road 15,000 



Wood-blocks*, per mile of 15-foot road. . . .20,000 

 Brick, per mile of 15 foot road. . .15,000 to L'O.OOO 

 *On concrete base, which represents about one- 

 half the total cost. 



Comparative Life of Pavements. The life of 

 a pavement, or the period during which it 

 may be used before renewal, necessarily de- 

 pends on the heaviness of the traffic and the 

 amount of repairing done from time to time. 

 Under ordinary conditions granite blocks will 

 serve for twenty years or longer; asphalt, 

 eighteen years; brick, fifteen years; wood 

 blocks, ten to fifteen years; bituminous con- 

 crete, eight to ten years ; macadam, eight years. 

 Much depends upon the quality of material. 



The Good Roads Movement 



At the beginning of the twentieth century 

 the United States had about 2,250,000 miles 

 of roads, of which less than eight per cent was 

 improved. The 2,000,000 miles or more of un- 

 improved roads are ordinary dirt roads. Once 

 outside the limits of cities and towns the 

 traveler in 1880 and 1890 was sure to find noth- 

 ing but a natural dirt road, filled with ruts, 

 muddy in rainy weather and rough in diy sea- 

 sons. So long as travel on country roads was 

 limited to horses and horse-drawn vehicles, 

 the attempts to maintain good country roads 

 were hardly more than spasmodic. The intro- 

 duction of the bicycle and the automobile, 

 by increasing the speed of vehicles and by 

 widening the circle of pleasure excursions, be- 

 came one of the chief factors in leading to a 

 demand for good roads. Rural communities, 

 however, are now . also awake to the actual 

 money profit there is in good transportation 

 to markets and to the other advantages of good 

 roads. 



Benefits of Good Roads. There is no fixed 

 standard by which the benefits derived from 

 good roads can be measured, although it is 

 now generally acknowledged that these bene- 

 fits are real and positive. No community which 

 has improved its roads has ever regretted the 

 step. So closely are the public roads connected 

 with every aspect of community life that any 

 method of measuring the benefits of good roads 



is incomplete. For convenience, however, they 

 may be divided into economic benefits and so- 

 cial benefits. 



Economic Benefits. There are certain direct 

 advantages which follow the improvement of 

 roads. First is the lower cost of hauling, which 

 may be the result of better road surface, of 

 lower grades or of shorter distances. The 

 farmer is enabled to haul to market the same 

 load with greater speed, and consequently in 

 less time, or a greater load in the same time. 

 A reduction of time is equivalent to a reduc- 

 tion of distance from the market centers. 

 Good roads, therefore, bring the farms nearer 

 to town, and it is easy to see that improved 

 roads mean greater farm values. In addition, 

 a good road makes hauling largely independ- 

 ent of the season or weather conditions. Mar- 

 ket prices, even for staple crops, show consid- 

 erable variation throughout the year. Where 

 bad roads prevail it is not uncommon for the 

 farmer to find that he must move his crops 

 not when the market price is favorable, but 

 when the roads are fit for travel. 



Every farmer sooner or later realizes the de- 

 sirability of diversified crops. Diversified farm- 

 ing usually involves a change from staple 

 crops, such as corn and wheat, which can be 

 stored, to more perishable vegetables and fruits, 

 which must be moved from the farm at once 

 after they ripen. The prime requisite for di- 



