Roadbuilding Addendum
by Iver P. Cooper
These appendices were deleted, for space reasons, from the original article All Roads Lead… published in Grantville Gazette Volume 10, but are collected here for reference purposes. So, too, are a few tables.
Definitions quoted from “WEST VIRGINIA HIGHWAYS Classification Systems, Characteristics and Usage”
http://www.wvdot.com/3_roadways/rp/facts/Chapter%202/Road%20Surface%20Type.pdf
Primitive (A) – earth road; may only be usable by four-wheel drive vehicles; publicly traveled by a small number of vehicles.
Unimproved (B) – earth road; maintained to permit bare passage for motor vehicles; road may have been bladed and/or minor improvements may have been made locally.
Graded and Drained (C) – earth road aligned and graded to permit reasonable convenient use by motor vehicles; has drainage systems (natural and artificial) sufficient to prevent serious impairment of the road by normal surface water; with or without dust palliative treatment or a continuous course of special borrow material to protect the new roadbed temporarily and to facilitate immediate traffic service.
Soil Surfaced (D) — earth road, the surface of which consists of mixed or stabilized soil.
Gravel or Stone (E) — surface consisting of gravel, broken stone, slag, chert, caliche, iron ore, shale, chats, scoria, disinterred rock, or other similar fragmented material that is coarser than sand.
Bituminous Surface Treated (F) – earth, soil surface, or gravel or stone road to which has been added by any process, a bituminous surface course with or without a seal coat, the total compacted thickness of which is less than one inch; seal coats include those known as chip seals, drag seals, plant-mix seals and rock asphalt seals.
Mixed Bituminous (G) – sub-classified as Low Type (G-1) or High Type (G-2), as follows:
Low Type (G-1) – road with a non-rigid base course having a combined thickness of surface and base less than seven inches, with a surface course of one inch or more in compacted thickness; composed of gravel, stone, sand, or similar material, mixed with bituminous materials under partial control with regard to
grading and proportion;
High Type (G-2) – road with a rigid base course of any thickness, or a non-rigid base course having a combined thickness of surface and base of seven inches or more, with a surface course of one inch or more in compacted thickness; composed of gravel, stone, sand, or similar material, mixed with bituminous materials under partial control with regard to grading and proportion.
Bituminous Penetration (H) – sub-classified as Low Type (H-1) or High Type (H-2), as follows:
Low Type (H-1) – road having a combined thickness of surface and base less than seven inches, with a surface course of one inch or more in compacted thickness; composed of gravel, stone, sand, or similar material bound with bituminous material introduced by downward or upward penetration;
High Type (H-2) – road having a combined thickness of surface and base of seven inches or more, with a surface course of one inch or more in compacted thickness; composed of gravel, stone, sand, or similar material bound with bituminous material introduced by downward or upward penetrationA
Asphaltic Concrete (I) – road constructed of a surface course of one inch or more in compacted thickness, consisting of bituminous concrete or sheet asphalt, prepared in accordance with precise specifications controlling gradation, proportion, and consistency of composition, or of rock asphalt; surface course may consist of a combination of two or more layers, such as a bottom and top course, or a binder or wearing course.
Concrete (J) – road consisting of Portland cement concrete with or without a bituminous wearing surface less than one inch in compacted thickness.
Brick (K) – road consisting of paving brick, stone, asphalt, wood and other block, or steel or wood with or without a bituminous wearing surface less than one inch in compacted thickness; includes roads with combination or wearing surfaces.”
***
Based on the following sources:
1) road types, see http://www.wvdot.com/3_roadways/rp/2004%20traffic%20maps/marion1.pdf
2) street names, hunt around Mannington WV with mapquest.com
3) relationship to RoF boundary, 1632 RPG guide and the large superimposed Thuringia with Mannington map at the 1632.org topographic maps page.
Paved Roads (unclear whether these are G-2, H-2, or I)
WV Highway 250
County Routes 1 (Brink Road/Buffalo Street)
5 (Dents Run)
9 (Whetstone Road)
11 (Fifth St.)
18 (Plum Run Road)
and parts of
16 (Mods Run Road)
91 (no name stated)
Low type bituminous roads (unclear whether these are G-1 or H-1)
part of 250/7 by Rocklick Run
44 by Grays Run
50 by East Run
part of 91, near Mahan Run
part of 91/4 closest to Mannington
Gravel or Stone Roads
part of 11/2 by Fleming Fork
part of 250/7
50/1
91/1
250/42
902
922
923
Graded and Drained, or Soil Surfaced Roads
several streets southeast of where 16 first crosses Mod Run.
Primitive Roads
various places but not worth listing.
***
* two 5-ton dump trucks with snow blade mounts and salt spreading hoppers.
* two 2.5 ton dump trucks with plow mounts (one with a salt hopper).
* three Large Wheel loaders (two at least are John Deere), at least one with backhoe.
* two Road graders.
* one 4×4 Jeep Cherokee
* two 4×4 crewcab pickups, one with a hot torch asphalt sealing system (This is the one you see where the road worker is using a long torch attached to tanks on a pick-up to seal cracks in asphalt.)
* two 4×4 pick-ups
* one Forklift.
* one Asphalt roller on a trailer.
* one Ditch Witch 2300 trencher.
* two trailer-mounted compressors.
* culverting materials
* Diesel fuel tanks
* Flatbed tow truck
| “Table 1-1: Road Construction Costs” | |||
| Year | Cost Then | 1632 | Comments |
| 1479 | 7d/yd2 | road paving, London (Gregory 92) | |
| 1792 | $7,500/mi | 1349L/mi | turnpike, 62 miles long, 37′ wide, 24′ stone, total cost $465,000, Philadelphia to Lancaster. (Rae 16) |
| E19C | $2,280/mi | 271L/mi @2.38s/$ | turnpike, leveled and graveled, Hartford & New Haven (Holbrook, 35) |
| “ | $14,600/mi | 1737L/mi | turnpike, Salem-Boston (Id.) |
| “ | $11,700/mi | 1392L/mi | turnpike, Newburyport-Boston (Id.) |
| “ | $4,500/mi | 536L/mi | turnpike, Mass. average (Id.) |
| 1810 | L968/mo | macadam-like turnpike, 15′ wide, 6″ thick, using Bristol limestone, constructed by Mr. James of Radstock. (Reader, 33) | |
| 1817 | $9,745/mi | 1027L/mi | Cumberland to Uniontown, road (Meyer 16) |
| 1817 | ~$12,660/mi | 1334L/mi | Cumberland to Wheeling, 130 mi., $1,645,679 road (Meyer 16) $1.7mil (Dilts 283). For details, see Meyer 16. |
| 1816 | 800-1000L/mi | 419-524L/mi | Telford style road, England, 30′ wide (Gregory 219) |
| 1835-1850 | at least $3,500/mi | macadam. (Majewski, 5). Elsewhere Majewski says that the lowest estimate for macadam was Kingsford’s, and was $3,400. | |
| 1846-1853 | $1,900/mi | plank roads in NY (Majewski, 8), based on articles of capitalization of plank road companies. | |
| 1835-1850 | $1,833/mi | plank roads in NY (Wixom 39) | |
| 1849-1853 | ~$2,000/mi | Watertown plank road (Wisconsin), Watertown to Oconomowoc, 58 miles for $103,000 (WHS) | |
| 1850 | $3,000/mi | Canton to Liverpool Plank road (Illinois), 10 miles. (ISM) | |
| 1848-1851 | $2,000/mi | Illinois plank roads: Southwestern, Northwestern, Western, Southern, and Blue Island. (Cook County) | |
| 1850 | $1,000/mi | plank roads in Illinois. Assumes plank can be delivered to the road for $5 “a thousand”. | |
| 1851-1855 | $750/mi | Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids plank road. 48 miles, funding $37,000 (Baxter) | |
| 1850s | $1,000-3,000/mi | Michigan plank roads (Mason) | |
| 1914 -26 | 3s/yd2 | water bound macadam, life 3 years. 65d/ ton mile traffic. (Gregory 293) | |
| “ | 7s/yd2 | tarmacadam, life 9 years. 72d/ ton mile traffic. (Id.) | |
| “ | 10s/yd2 | asphalt macadam, life 15 years. 28d/ ton mile traffic? (Id.) | |
| 1900? | $600/mi | consolidated soil/clay road. assumes labor @ $1/day, team @ $3/day, haul not more than 1 mi, road 12′ wide, 6″ deep. Cost can go as low as $300/mi. (Oglesby, 633) |
E19C=early nineteenth century. British currency, L=pounds, s=shillings, d=pence. 20s to L, 12d to s. 1632 exchange rate is 1s=New US$21. Costs deflated to 1632 using the methodology described in my Transportation Cost FAQ, posted to www.1632.org
| TC “Table 2.2.3: Load vs. Pull” | ||
| Surface | Pull X | Source |
| wagon wheel, probably iron-tired, on … | ||
| earth road, level, avg | 30 | Gregory 125 |
| earth road, level, bad | 10 | “ |
| earth road, level, good | 37.5 | “ |
| asphalt, good | 30-60 | Gregory 126 |
| wood, good | 10-15 | “ |
| macadam | 7.5-20 | “ |
| Iron-tired wheels on … | ||
| sand, deep and loose | 7 | Lay |
| graveled earth | 15 | “ |
| macadam, worn or little used | 20 | “ |
| broken stone on earth | 35 | “ |
| Solid Rubber wheels on … | ||
| “reasonable” surfaces | 45 | “ |
| broken stone on paved foundation, sheet asphalt, plank road | 50 | “ |
| Pneumatic Tire wheels … | ||
| “reasonable” surfaces | 60 | “ |
| pavement, macadam | 70 | “ |
| brick | 90 | “ |
| best pavement | 180 | “ |
| steel plate or stone trackway | 250 | “ |
2 horses working together, subtract 5%
3 horses working together, subtract 15%
4 horses working together, subtract 20%
(Gregory, 125)
Lay=Lay, Ways of the World, Table 3.1, p. 89, cited in
check
Rolf Peter Sieferle. The Subterranean Forest: Energy Systems and the Industrial Revolution. Cambridge: The White Horse Press, 2001. x + 230 pp. Index. £35.00 (cloth), ISBN 1-874267-47-2.