EARTH ROADS ARE EASY

Abstract

The earliest European immigrants in America traveled on waterways and on pathways worn into the earth by animals and Native Americans. Once their communities began to thrive, settlers widened paths and cleared new roads and streets then began experimenting with inexpensive surfacing to reduce dust in dry weather and mud in wet. “Earth Roads Are Easy” investigates materials and techniques used to maintain primitive thoroughfares with a minimum of effort and expense. The options range from the mundane—clay, sand, gravel, calcium chloride, oil, and tar—to the extraordinary—water glass, adobe clay, beet juice, and carpeting.

There is no more dfficult problem confronting highway engineers than that of properly constructing and maintaining an earth road. The work may be less spectacular than the construction and maintenance of hard-surfaced roads, but there is greater latitude in location, methods of construction and choice of materials, consequently there is more scope for the exercise of sound judgment on the part of the engineer.1