OFFICE OF PUBLIC ROAD INQUIRIES. 241 



it be surfaced with enough chert to hold it in place and to prevent its 

 washing into the side ditches. 



Chert roads can be built in northern Alabama at from $200 to $500 

 per mile, and we believe, if the work is properly done, that they will 

 last for many years with but little repair, and that their surface will 

 be as smooth and hard as that of the best stone and gravel roads. 

 The success of this work is shown by the following extract from the 

 Florence Times: 



The Times, in connection with the public-spirited citizens of Lauderdale County, 

 wishes to tender grateful thanks to Mr. M. O. Eldridge, the assistant director of 

 the Office of Public Road Inquiries, for the valuable Wesson in road building which 

 he recently gave to our people. We hope it will prove, as it should be, the fore- 

 runner of economical and practical road building in our county. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



At the close of the last fiscal year, work on an object-lesson road at 

 Doylestown, Pa., was still being carried on, but was not completed 

 until early in the fall. This work, brief mention of which was made 

 in the last report, was about one-half mile in length, one-eighth of a 

 mile being 8 feet wide, the balance 12 feet wide, with earth shoulders 

 sloping to wide open ditches. The old earth road was considered one 

 of the worst pieces of public road in that section, having an exceed- 

 ingly sharp grade, with a miry strip at the foot of the hill caused by 

 the lack of proper facilities for carrying off the water. Considerable 

 cutting and filling was done and the grade was reduced to an average 

 of 3 per cent. Native stone of a good quality was used. On part of 

 this road a telf ord foundation, 6 inches deep, was laid ; the surface 

 was composed of native trap rock, machine broken, laid to a depth of 

 3 inches and dressed with screenings. Another portion of the work 

 was of macadam construction, with a depth of 6 inches, laid on a hard 

 natural foundation. Considerable difficulty was experienced in haul- 

 ing water, getting teams for the roller, etc., but in spite of these obsta- 

 cles, a good road has been secured, which stood last winter's freezes 

 and thaws surprisingly well. The cost of the work was $1,520.50, and 

 a bid has been submitted to finish the road to Doylestown Borough 

 for $1,100, which would make the cost of a mile of road $2,620.50. 



At the National Farm School the experimental work, conducted by 

 Expert Charles T. Harrison, resulted in road construction being added 

 to the school curriculum, and the building of a good earth road 1,200 

 feet long by 20 feet wide in April last by the students under the 

 direction of Prof. W. T. Pope, horticulturist. This road leads from 

 the object-lesson road to the school building, and is known as 

 " Memorial lane." 



At the request of Congressman Acheson and other prominent citi- 

 zens of Washington County, Pa., the Office secured the loan of a 

 complete road-building outfit and supervised the building of about a 

 mile of object-lesson road in North Strabane Township of that county. 

 Hard-road material in that part of the State is very scarce, but the 

 county authorities were fortunate in securing enough limestone of 

 good quality to build this road, and, when our machinery and experts 

 arrived, this material had been piled up along the road ready to be 

 crushed. The machinery consisted of a rock crusher, elevator, screen 

 and bins, road machine, and road roller. It was loaned to the Depart- 

 ment by the Champion Road Machine Company, and was transported 

 from Kennett Square to Canonsburg, Pa., by the courtesy of the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 



AGR 1901 16 



