CHAPTER III.
CONSTRUCTION.
Suitable drainage is the first requisite of a good road, as with our climate and soil it is impossible to have a road in a satisfactory condition at all seasons of the year unless the same is well drained. In building a new road provisions should be made to get rid of all surface water, and in wet land of the water in the soil, by ditches and drains sufficient to dispose of it in a thorough manner; and in repairing an old road it frequently happens that its condition can be greatly improved and sometimes perfected by simply providing proper drainage for it. It is not sufficient to have ditches on each side of the road; for if the water stands in them it is liable to make the road muddy and to weaken its substratum. The ditches themselves should be thoroughly drained, and all the water which accumulates in them should be carried into the natural watercourses of the country, or at any rate beyond the limits of the highway.
Every carriage-road ought to be wide enough at nearly all points to allow two vehicles to pass each other in safety. Whether it should be wider than that depends upon its location and its importance as a public thoroughfare. Any unnecessary width should be avoided, except on pleasure and showy boulevards, because thereby land is wasted, and labor and cost in construction and repair are increased. All important highways should be wide enough to admit of footpaths five or six feet wide on each side, and of a macadamized or travelled way commensurate to the public traffic thereon.
If a road is to be made wider than two vehicles require, it should be made wide enough to accommodate one or more vehicles; for any intermediate width causes unequal and excessive wear, and therefore is false economy.
The road-bed should generally be raised above the level of the surrounding land, in order that it may be as free as possible from water; and it should "crown" sufficiently to allow all the surface water, to find its way quickly into the side ditches. If it is not crowned enough, it soon becomes hollow, and therefore either muddy or dusty, and in times of heavy rains or thaws the water stands or flows in the middle of the road. If it is crowned too much, the drivers of vehicles will seek the middle of the road in order to keep their vehicles in level positions, and consequently the excessive travel in one part of the road soon wears it into ruts in which water accumulates, and carriages in meeting are forced to travel on a side hill, which causes unnecessary wear to the road by sliding down towards the ditches. This sliding tendency greatly augments the labor of the horses and the wear and tear of the carriages. Evidently, then, the wise course to pursue in the matter of crowning the road is to hit the golden mean. Much of success in life depends upon striking the golden mean, for human experience teaches that those who follow in this pathway are apt to find themselves among the happy and the successful. The advice which the wise old Horace made a sage seaman give two thousand years ago is good for road-makers of to-day,—
"Licinius, trust a seaman's lore:
Steer not too boldly to the deep;
Nor dreading storms by treacherous shore