Blasting for Good Roads 



By J. H. Squires, M.S., Ph.D. 



SOME corrective must be found for 

 the present poor condition of roads 

 that are already oppressive and 

 promise to become intolerable. 



As for the work of building or im- 

 proving roads, the advent of dynamite 

 into this field is reducing both time and 

 labor to a minimum. For clearing a 

 right of way by removing stumps and 

 boulders, removing outcrops, getting 

 rid of high sides and digging ditches — 

 for proper drainage is the best of good 

 roads insurance — it has been demonstra- 

 ted that the highest point of efficiency 

 is reached through the use of explosives. 



Also for cutting away hillsides or 

 bluffs and lowering grades — operations 

 which heretofore have in many in- 

 stances seemed prohibitive because of 

 the labor required — this modern short- 

 cut to the easy haul is destined to bring 

 about a radical change in our roads. 



For both the construction and main- 

 tenance of good roads, it approaches 

 the ideal, since it reduces time, labor, 

 and expense, and produces results that 

 make for permanency. 



Swamps and uncontrolled streams are 

 hard on vehicles 



The condition revealed in the upper pic- 

 ture corrected by a blasted ditch and a 

 good culvert 



Bad drainage is the greatest enemy of 

 good roads. Excess of water, more 

 quickly than anything else, destroys a 

 road. Relief is through drainage. Drain- 



Plan of loading preparatory to blasting a 

 ditch through a swamp 



FUSE. I I 



TAfiPina / 



BLASTtNO CAP / 

 CAFtTKIDQE^A 



Proper method of 

 placing and loading 

 a boulder for smoke- 

 hole shot 



Boulder in ditch 

 flooding a road 



age ditches were formerly dug by hand 

 labor; the cost was high and the work 

 progressed slowly. Many are already 

 more or less familiar with ditch blasting 

 methods and the results that are ob- 

 tained. In the rougher sections of the 

 country, especially in the swamp and 

 flooded areas, the use of dynamite for 

 ditching cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended. It does the work quicker, 

 better, and cheaper. It permits good 

 drainage at a low cost where any other 

 method now known would mean poorer 

 drainage and a great increase in cost. 

 This applies to all types of ditches. 



Excepting in some prairie regions, all 

 road improving is attended with much 

 stumping in or along the right of way. 

 Most stumping on highway construction 

 is now done by hand. The work is slow 

 and expensive; the stumps are heavy 

 and difficult to handle and are therefore 

 simply rolled to the side of the road, 

 where they remain as eye-sores for 

 years. These stumps can be blasted 

 out at small cost. 



There is now much pick and bar work 

 in removing boulders and ledges from 

 the road. A careful study of conditions 



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