116 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ROAD and TRAIL BUILDING in the NATIONAL PARKS 
An address before the National Park Conference by 
E. A. Keys, Inspector, Department of the Interior. 
It has been deemed unnecessary to enter 
into a general discussion of highway con- 
struction as generally applied to the state 
and county and the numerous problems that 
enter into the same, and indeed this would 
be impossible without the addition of com- 
plete specifications and detailed plans, but 
rather to confine the paper in a general 
way to the roads of the national parks 
without regard to the peculiar topographi- 
cal and climatic conditions of any partic- 
ular park. 
In each of our national parks where the 
financial resources justify there should be 
an organization to handle the public work 
of the park, and where the revenues are 
insufficient to justify such an organization 
this class of work might be handled from 
the nearest park having such an organi- 
zation; as, for example, if the financial 
resources of Crater Lake National Park 
did not justify such an organization, the 
organization from Yosemite National 
Park, with its equipment, might be tem- 
porarily diverted to Crater Lake National 
Park to make surveys for this park. In 
no case should a piece of work of any 
magnitude be allowed to proceed unsuper- 
intended by a man of technical knowledge. 
This, of course, should be under the direct 
supervision of the superintendent of the 
park. The engineering organization in 
each park should have a man of general 
experience who would be qualified not only 
to construct roads, but buildings, water- 
works, sewer systems, power plants, etc. 
(such a man can be found among the 
younger engineers). 
Where the problems along the above 
lines are complicated, such as an exten- 
sive sewer system, the superintendent of 
the park should be allowed the services 
of a consulting engineer to assist in de- 
termining the best possible general sewer 
design. The report of the superintendent 
regarding this branch of the service, in- 
cluding plans and specifications for the 
various classes of work, should be sub- 
mitted through a central office to the Sec- 
retary of the Interior, and this office* should 
be in charge of a man of technical knowl- 
edge of such matters. 
Before any work of magnitude is un- 
dertaken in any of the national parks for 
a system of roads a carefully prepared 
general plan should be worked out, and 
each piece of construction should be some 
unit of this general plan, so that when 
it is finally completed every unit will go 
to make up a system of highways which 
will be a credit to the Government. If 
there is only $5,000 a year available in any 
particular year the small amount which 
this will construct should be some small 
unit of the general plan. 
These carefully prepared surveys, with 
necessary profile and cross sections, would 
enable the engineers to submit through the 
superintendent of the park to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior a carefully prepared 
estimate of the cost of these roads, so that 
when the work should be undertaken at 
some future date the department would 
have at its command sufficient data to 
determine the probable cost of the under- 
taking in time to thoroughly discuss the 
matter and arrive at some definite con- 
clusion before Congress is asked for an 
appropriation. 
Before the work of actual construction 
is commenced proper plans and specifica- 
tions should be prepared showing the cross 
section of the road, width, the amount of 
crown, depth of macadam, and all neces- 
sary data to proceed with the construc- 
tion of the road. These plans and speci- 
fications should be standardized and ap- 
proved by the Secretary of the Interior 
and be available to send out) to the super- 
intendent upon request for the same, and 
the plans should not be departed from 
without express authority from the de- 
partment, except in so far as is necessary 
to meet peculiar local conditions. Some 
of the first features which present them- 
selves to the superintendent starting at 
the beginning of a highway are what shall 
be the maximum allowable grade, the width 
and depth of the macadam, what height 
of crown, what available rock is best suited 
for the purpose at hand, what class of 
culverts shall be constructed — concrete, 
terra cotta, galvanized iron, masonry, or 
wood. With properly prepared plans and 
specifications these matters would be set- 
tled definitely for the superintendent, with 
the exception of applying the general plans 
and specifications to the peculiar local con- 
ditions to which each case must be 
adapted. 
Departing from the title of this paper, 
but in connection with the above, I would 
say also that it would greatly facilitate 
matters for the superintendent if standard 
plans and specifications were prepared and 
adopted by the department for sewer con- 
struction— that is, standard manholes, 
standard flush tanks, and standard septic 
tanks should be adopted, and in all cases 
where a sewer system of any magnitude 
is to be installed the matter should be 
carefully considered and if necessary the 
department should not hesitate to employ 
for a limited time to assist the superin- 
tendent some of our well-known sanitary 
engineers, who should he consulted on the 
general and important matter of sewer dis- 
posal. In the case of our newer parks T 
believe it would be well to lay out in the 
beginning a general town-site plan where 
there is likelihood of a town growing to 
some magnitude, then design the sewer 
system for this town and compel the build- 
ings to conform to the town site and 
sewer system. This is a matter which is 
especially important in the national parks, 
where the work will be viewed by thou- 
sands of critical tourists, among whom will 
probably be some of the leading engineers, 
not only of this country but of other 
countries. 
In connection with sewer disposal I de- 
sire to call attention to the but recently 
invented Emhof septic tank, which has 
been invented by one of the leading Ger- 
man scientists and which has been re- 
cently reviewed in the Engineering News 
and approved by no less an authority than 
Rudolph Herring, probably the ablest sani- 
tary engineer in the United States. 
Attention is called to this invention par- 
ticularly for the reason that it is thought 
that it will be found applicable to sewerage 
disposal in some of our national parks. 
It appears that Mr. Herring made a trip 
to Europe, taking with him his assistants, 
and made a thorough test of this septic 
tank before writing the above-mentioned 
article. 
In connection with the adoption of 
standard plans and specifications for the 
roads, one of the first problems which 
presents itself is determining the maxi- 
mum allowable grade and at the same time 
reach the points of interest throughout the 
park. This is a subject which has a some- 
what large range and what follows is 
with reference to maximum grades on 
broken stone roads. In Prussia the max- 
imum grade in mountainous country is 5 
per cent, in France the standard on na- | 
tional roads is not to exceed 3 per cent, 
departmental roads not to exceed 4 per 
cent, and on subordinate roads not to ex- | 
ceed 6 per cent. On the great Alpine 
road over the Simplon Pass, built under 
the direction of Napoleon Bonaparte, the j 
grades average 4(4 per cent on the Italian 
side and 5.9 per cent on the Swiss side. 
In only one place does it become as steep 
as 7.7 per cent. In Great Britain the 
celebrated Holyhead road, built by Tel- 
ford, the celebrated English engineer 
(from whom this class of road derives its 
name) through the very mountainous dis- | 
trict in north Wales has an ordinary 
maximum grade of 3% per cent, with one 
piece of 4.5 per cent and a very short piece 
of 5.9 per cent, on both of which pieces 
care was taken to make the surface 
smoother and harder than the remainder 
of the road. 
In New York on the state aid roads 
the nominal maximum grade is 5 per cent, | 
but grades of 6 per cent have been found 
