HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION 99 



cement and one part of fine sand with sufficient water to make a thin 

 grout. The most convenient arrangement for preparing and dis- 

 tributing the grout is a water-tight wooden box carried on four wooden 

 wheels about 12 inches in diameter. The box may be about 4 feet 

 wide, 7 feet long, and 12 inches deep, furnished with a gate about 8 

 inches wide, in the rear end. The box should be mounted on the 

 wheels with an inclination, so that the rear end is about 4 inches lower 

 than the front end. 



The operation of placing the filler is as follows : The cement and 

 sand are placed in the box, and sufficient water is added to make a 

 thin grout. The box is located about 12 feet from the gutter, the end 

 gate opened, and about 2 cubic feet of the grout allowed to flow out 

 and run over the top of the brick (care being taken to stir the grout 

 while it is being discharged). If the brick are very dry, the entire 

 surface of the pavement should be thoroughly wet with a hose before 

 applying the grout; if not, absorption of the water from the grout by 

 the bricks will prevent adhesion between the bricks and the cement 

 grcut. The grout is swept into the joints by ordinary bass brooms. 

 After about 100 feet in length of the pavement has been covered the 

 box is returned to the starting-point, and the operation is repeated 

 with a grout somewhat thicker than the first. If this second applica- 

 tion is not sufficient to fill the joints, the operation is repeated as often 

 as may be necessary to fill them. If the grout "has been made too thin, 

 or the grade of the street is so great that the grout will not remain long 

 enough in place to set, dry cement may be sprinkled over the joints and 

 swept in. After the joints are completely filled and inspected, allowing 

 three or four hours to intervene, the completed pavement should be 

 covered with sand to a depth of about half an inch, and the roadway 

 barricaded, and no traffic allowed on it for at least ten days. 



The object of covering the pavement with sand is to prevent the 

 grout from drying or settling too rapidly; hence, in dry and windy 

 weather, it should be sprinkled from time to time. If coarse sand is 

 employed in the grout, it \vill separate from the cement during the 

 operation of filling the joints, with the result that many joints will be 

 filled with sand and very little cement, while others will be filled with 

 cement and little or no sand ; thus there will be many spots in the pave- 

 ment in which no bond is foimed between the bricks, and under the 

 action of traffic* these portions will quickly become defective. 



