240 DEPARTMENTAL EEPORTS. 



Friday, October 12, the road machinery was paraded to the Peninsula road, 

 where an exhibition of spreading and rolling gravel was made. In the afternoon 

 a trip was made to Garfield Township, where a fine object-lesson road was shown, 

 illustrating the value of drainage in reclaiming swamplands and the construction 

 of a gravel road thereon. Brief addresses were made and questions answered by 

 Hon. A. E. Palmer and myself. 



At the request of the committee in charge I remained a week longer to assist in 

 the completion of the work. When I left, October 18, there were about 800 feet 

 of foundation placed and 325 feet of finished surface. The road had an average 

 width of 10 feet and a depth of 8 inches of macadam made from crushed field stone 

 of a good quality. Gravel shoulders were placed on each side of the stone con- 

 struction. The cost of the work was approximately as follows: Drainage of the 

 swamp lands, $800; graveling Peninsula road, $400; graveling about one-fourth of 

 a mile of macadam road, $r>00. Incidental expenses in finishing the road brought 

 the total cost of all the work done up to $1,500 or about $2,000 per mile. 

 Respectfully, 



Charles T. Harrison, 

 Special Agent and Road Expert. 



Subsequent reports from Michigan show that after passing through 

 a very severe winter the drainage of the Traverse City road has proved 

 successful. The gravel road is still hard, smooth, and free from ruts, 

 and the macadam first-class in every respect. As a result of this 

 work Traverse City and vicinity are making rapid strides toward 

 better streets and roads. The aid extended by the Office in this mat- 

 ter was greatly appreciated by the city and county authorities, and as 

 a result efforts are being made for the holding of road conventions 

 and the construction of sample roads at Cheboygan and Ludington 

 during the present season. It will be impossible, however, for the 

 Office to do more for Michigan this year, as engagements have already 

 been made which will keep our present force busy for several months. 



ALABAMA. 



There is, perhaps, no other section of the country better supplied 

 with good road material than the northern portion of Alabama. 

 Immense deposits of the most excellent quality of chert are found in 

 that State along the banks of the Tennessee River. This material, on 

 account of the large percentage of silica, which gives it a good wear- 

 ing quality, and of iron, which enables it to readily consolidate and 

 form an impervious mass, makes one of the most desirable and valu- 

 able road materials found anywhere in the country. The people of 

 Florence, Ala., appreciate the value of this material, but the county 

 road officials, realizing their inability to apply it to the best advan- 

 tage, made an application to the Department to assist them in build- 

 ing a short section of road out of their local materials. Mr. Eldridge, 

 assistant director of the Office, was sent there during the month of 

 August, 1900, to investigate and experiment with this material, and 

 the result seems to have been highly satisfactory. Previous to this 

 experiment, the county authorities had been using "creek gravel" in 

 preference to the chert, owing to the fact that the gravel could be 

 secured with little or no effort, while the chert had to be laboriously 

 dug from the bank. Mr. Eldridge built a section of road with the 

 pure chert and a section composed of creek gravel as a foundation 

 and chert as a surface. The roadbeds were well drained, graded, 

 shaped, and rolled, and the materials were spread and rolled in two 

 courses, each 4 inches in thickness. The material was blasted out 

 with dynamite and powder. It was found by experiment and a study 

 of existing roads that the chert was much more satisfactory than the 

 gravel previously used, but that such gravel could be used, provided 



