Book II. REPAIRING ROADS. 547 



iron trough (a), so as to cover a space of nine feet in width. The water is turned off 

 and on by a lever at the fore-end of the barrel (i) in the usual manner. 



3495. Washing orjiooding roads with a view to cleaning them, has been proposed by 

 Jessop, and some other engineers ; but it is evidently a mode tliat can only be adopted 

 in particular situations, and the advantages which it would have over clean scraping 

 does not appear. 



3496. Rolling, as a mode of preserving roads, is recommended by various writers on 

 the subject; and appears to be useful on some roads after being loosened by frost. In 

 general, however, it is chiefly applicable after repairs, such as filling in ruts or laying on a 

 coat of new materials. Rolling has also been employed to consolidate snow oil roads : 

 it is said to indurate the snow so much, tliat it becomes a smooth hard body, on which 

 the wheels of carriages make but little impression, and the materials of the road are 

 preserved. When a thaw happens, the whole of the snow is scraped off by snow- 

 ploughs or scrapers, and not being allowed to melt on the metals, they are said to remain 

 unloosened. This plan is said to be general in America, and appears to have been 

 tried, in one instance, in the north of Scotland, with success. 



3497. A road-roller should be of large diameter, perhaps not less than five feet : to 

 facilitate its turning, it may be made in three lengths, and the only material is cast-iron, 

 with a large wooden box over. 



3498. Marshal, on the subject of repairing roads, observes, that the best service of the 

 surveyor is to keep their surfaces smooth and even ; so that rain-water may find a free 

 and ready passage to its proper drain. Ruts and hollow parts are to be filled up, level, 

 or even with the general surface, as often as they are formed. This attention is more 

 especially requisite to a new-made road, whose bed and foundation are not yet fully con- 

 firmed. But in every case, and at all times, a solicitous regard is due to this most im- 

 portant, yet most neglected part of road-surveying. Much expense of materials and 

 labor may thereby be saved, and the great end of road-making be fully obtained ; 

 namely, that of rendering the road, in all seasons, easy, safe, and pleasant to the 

 traveller. 



3499. To keep a road in repair, Edgeworth observes, it will for some time require the 

 attention of the maker ; ruts will be continually formed in the loose materials : these 

 must be sedulously filled up, and a small sprinkling of river gravel should be added. 

 All stones larger than the rest should be removed and broken smaller, and no pains 

 should be spared to render the whole as compact and smooth as possible. At a moderate 

 distance from the capital, if no wheels of a smaller breadth tlian six inches, and if no 

 greater load than one ton on each wheel be permitted to pass on it, a road will last a 

 long time, and may be kept in constant repair, at a moderate yearly expense. 



3500. The repair of a road which has been well made, or put into a good state of 

 repair, Paterson observes, requires attention more than expense. " No more metals 

 ought to be used for the incidental repair of that road ever afterwards than is just equi- 

 valent to the decay of the road. And in order that the decay of the old, and of course 

 the supply of new metals may be as little as possible, it is of the greatest consequence 

 that the road never be allowed to get rutted ; for, besides the unpleasantness of such a 

 road to the traveller, it is a fact not generally thought upon, that the lateral rubbing of 

 the wheels into the ruts will wear and grind down more than the double of the metals 

 than if the road were smooth, and where the only friction of the wheels is that of rolling 

 over the metals. Besides, when a road is much rutted, it not only retains the water, and 

 consumes a greater quantity of metals (as hath been noticed) ; but the rubbing and jolt- 

 ing of the wheels into the ruts wears down the iron of the wheels, fatigues the beast of 

 draught, and also wears harness, &c. much sooner than when the road is smooth. All 

 these, and much more, are the bad effects of a rutted road. Having premised thus much 

 I shall next advert to the method to be adopted in order to keep the road free from ruts, 

 at as little expense and labor, aud with as few metals as possible. 



3501. In order to prevent any road from getting rutted, it is indispensable that it be kept free from water 

 by under drainage. No road, Paterson continues, that has any tendency to rut should be, for many days 

 together, from under the eye of one who has a general charge, and who is ready to withdraw a workman 

 to this or that part, as need may require. 



3502. So soon as newly-put-on metals begin to shift by the w/ieeh, or form into ruts, thev should be imme- 

 diately replaced, every little ridge broken down, and every rut, hole, or inequality, tilled up ; and the 

 road kept in proper shape until the metals become bound and consolidated together. When the road is 

 attended to in this manner, it has the effect too, of subjecting the whole of the metals to an equal latiguc. 

 Every time that a little new metals are put on to fill up any hollow parts of the road, those parts being 

 then, from the new metals, a little rougher than the rest of the road, the horses naturally avoid travelling 

 on them for a while at first, until they have become a little smoother, or until the other parts begin to 

 get rutted. This shifting upon the road wears down the metals equally, and prevents those regular tracks 

 of the horse and of the wheels which would otherwise be the consequence. 13y adopting this method, it 

 will be found that less labor and fewer metals will be required in the course of the year, and the road will 

 always be in good order. But, on the other hand, to allow the road to get rutted, and then to fill tiiese 

 ruts with new metals every time they get into this state, as is frequently done, raises the track of the 

 wheels, leaving hollow the track of the horse, and so gives the road a concave, instead of a convex, shape 

 ill the middle : this retains the water, and injures the road very much. The same thing occurs again 



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