Book II. ROAD MAKING OF ENGINEERS. S21 



carriages, and tliere is fifteen feet of gravel road at each side for light carriages and 

 saddle horses. Tliis road has been executed for sixteen years, and has given the greatest 

 satisfaction ; but Walker thinks that considerable improvement would be found from 

 paving the sides of a road, upon which the heavy traffick is great, in both directions, and 

 leaving the middle for light carriages, the carmen or drivers walking upon the foot- 

 paths or sides of the road, would then be close to their horses, without interrupting or 

 being in danger of accidents from light carriages, which is the case when they are driving 

 upon the middle of the road ; and tiie unpaved part being in the middle or highest part 

 of the road, would be more easily kept in good repair. But unless the heavy traffick in 

 both directions is great, one width, say ten or twelve feet, if very well paved, will be 

 found sufficient ; and in this case, the paving ought to be in the middle of the road. 

 The width of many of the present roads is, besides, such, that ten or twelve feet can be 

 spared for paving, while twjce that width would leave too little for the gravelled part. 

 Although the first cost of paving is so great, he does not think that any other plan can be 

 adopted so good and so cheap in those places where the materials got in the neighborhood 

 are not sufficient for supporting the roads. A coating of whinstone is, for instance, 

 more durable than the gravel with which the roads round London are made and repaired ; 

 but much less so than paving ; although the freight and carriage of the whinstone, and of 

 tlie paving-stones, which form the principal items of the expense, are nearly the same. 



334 9. Roads ought to be wide and strong, Edgeworth observes, in proportion to their 

 vicinity to great towns, mines, or manufactories. As they approach the capital, they 

 should be wider and stronger than elsewhere. When a number of roads leading to a 

 great city combine and fall into one, the road from that junction should be proportion- 

 ably solid and capacious. Near the capital, the width of roads is however often restricted 

 by buildings, that cannot with propriety be suddenly removed, but every opportunity for 

 removing these buildings, and for widening the road, should be attended to, and no 

 future buildings or encroachments should be allowed. And, though in some cases it 

 appears reasonable, to permit the erection of new buildings, and the making new planta- 

 tions, nearer than thirty feet from the centre of a road, upon condition that security should 

 be given to the public for the constant preservation of the road that is thus injured ; it is, 

 however, far safer to prohibit what is injurious to public convenience, than to compromise 

 with individuals : cases of private hardship may, and must occur, but it is part of the 

 true glory of Britain, that there exists no exemption in our laws in favor of the rich. 



ft350. Proportioning the breadth of roads to the traffick, for which they may be employed, 

 is not sufficiently attended to. In remote places, where there is but little traffick, the 

 waste of ground occasioned by superfluous width of roads, is an error of considerable 

 magnitude. There are many places where roads of twenty feet breadth would suit the 

 public convenience, as well as if they were twice as broad. Now it is clear, that if a 

 road is one pole or perch wider than is necessary, there is a waste of 320 perches in a 

 mile, equal to two acres of ground, which, at the rate of three pounds per acre, would, 

 if the road had been once well made, keep half a mile of such road, as is here alluded to, 

 in good repair. 



3351. The breadth of the road and the width of the metalsj according to Paterson, 

 should depend on circumstances different from the former. For a few miles in the 

 vicinity of such cities as London or Edinburgh, the most proper breadth at which a road 

 should be formed, is probably from sixty to seventy feet, and the metals from twenty-five 

 to thirty-five feet. While in the neighborhood of such towns as Newcastle or Perth, 

 it will be sufficient that it be formed forty feet broad, and that the width of the metals be 

 about eighteen or twenty feet. These are the breadths presumed to be the most eligible in 

 such situations. But rules cannot be given to suit every situation : the breadth ought to 

 be regulated according to the extent of the run of commerce, or traffick, upon the road. 

 As a general rule, however, for public roads over the different counties of Great Britain, 

 I should suppose the following might, in most cases, be adopted. Take for instance, the 

 road betwixt Edinburgh and Glasgow, or betwixt Edinburgh and Aberdeen, by the way 

 of Dundee. These roads are formed in general from thirty-five to forty feet wide ; and 

 the breadth of the metals is from fourteen to sixteen feet, for the most part. Such 

 roads as these would be found to answer very well, in general, over the kingdom. A 

 breadth sufficient for the general purposes of country travelling, according to M'Adam, 

 is sixteen feet of solid materials, with six feet on each side formed of slighter materials. 

 The Bristol roads, he says, are made with stone about the width of sixteen feet. 



3352. Narrow roads, it is judiciously observed by Fry, are almost always in bad con- 

 dition, which is to be accounted for from the circumstance of every carriage being 

 obliged to go in the same ruts ; and as each rut is generally only six inches wide, one foot 

 of tlie road only is worn by the wheels instead of the whole breadth of it ; which would 

 be the case if the road were, of a proper width, and if it were well constructed. If a 

 road be laid out, from twenty to thirty feet wide, so flat as that a carriage may stand nearly 

 upright on every part of it, and if moderate care be taken by the surveyor to prevent the 



