"THE RAWHIDE ROAD"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1923, Page 6

"THE RAWHIDE ROAD"

BITUMEN AND PLAIN DIRT

AN AMERICAN PLAN.

There are thousands of miles of roads which do not warrant an expenditure bo enormous as that upon main highways, writes Mr. D. Deane Logan, of the American Old Colony Club, in an article on roading problems in the States. There are thousands of miles of feeders to already existing permanent highways that must and eventually will be surfaced. Prohibitive costs have restricted their improvement as a whole and limited those that have been improVed to the dignified classification of gravel roads; they must be constantly worked and regravelled, they are dusty, when dry, and, more often than not, dangerously "slick" when wet.

If there were a, method that would cost but a fraction of what the present permanent highway costs, that would make use of such material as would require the least amount of maintenance at the least cost, and that would produce a road which could be thoroughly maintained, there would be the solution of the difficulty. Thereis such a road, one that must eventually come into its own and be recognised as the best standard road for all ordinary purposes, because of its low cost, its durability, its resiliency, the ease and thoroughness with which it can be maintained, and, last but not- least, the rapidity of. it» construction. It can be built under average conditions at one-fourth the cost of the best permanent roads now in extensive use. This does not mean that it is not good. It is proven good in ways general enough and varied enough to convince and gained for itself a semi-official name of the "rawhide road."

Its success is due to the old faithful standby of the road-builder, asphalt (bitumen), its low cost to Mother Earth, which is always on the spot. Its construction is simple and rapid, and the results are absolutely the best and most lasting of any road, for there is no other road that consistently and . surely. improves with use. Briefly, the system of construction is this: — THE PROCESS. When the " dump " has been properly levelled and drained and' settled, the surface is bladed down to the contour of the finished road, and a . few inches below the desired finished top. It is thoroughly tamped by means of a special rolling tamper weighing ten tons or more, and as this weight is supported by the small ends of only a few tamping arms at one time, an enormous campression is obtained. After tamping until smooth, a priming coat of heavy asphalt is applied at a temperature near its flash point. Loose earth is then pulled in from the sides and levelled to a thickness of four inches or so. This pulverised dirt is then given a number of applications of hot asphalt of about one quart to each square yard, each application being well - mixed into the dirt by harrowing, discing, and kneading. When it is impregnated \vith the proper amount of asphalt the. dirt is tamped into a compact mass and smoothed. \ A seal /coat of asphalt is then! applied to. the surface, covered with pulverised dirt from the side of the road, and rolled. The resulting road is so compact that the heaviest trucks will not rut it.;,--; With constant traffic it becomes polished, and dark, and it is mud and dust'proof.^lt is resilient, and consequently has easy-riding qualities, and it: will not crack^ Maintenance" is it" simple process; a hole can be permanently "repaired by filling with a prepared mixture of asphalt and dirt and then tamped, the new material, moreover, being tamped "into the road," producing an invisible patch. ~ v BIG CLAIMS FOR THEBOAD. Those who have seen the road cannot choose but to bdieve that it is one which will be in existence in a'good stat« of repair long after more expensive highways have given their sen-ice and have disappeared. If neglected it is no more permanent than they are, but it requires iess maintenance, and what is required can be done effectively arid economically. The oldest pavament of this kind is in Kansas City, where two streets were laid down in 1907. City records show that one has had but two ctnt» exponded upon it per square yard, and the other nothing, and it is in good condition, except for a. few places where the drainage is noogbod.