Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/779

 Popular Science Monthly

���A common obstruction

���/ /I

Fire "B" before "A"

���The rock broken up

���The clear road

��has failed to reveal a case where the use of explosives will not hasten the work and decrease the cost.

The old method of making cuts in hard ground by hand digging, using road plows for loos- ening the clay, is not at all satisfac- tory. It is slow, arduous, and ex- pensive. Well placed blasts will either loosen or throw down this hard ground so that it can be easily loaded into wagons or carts, or can be removed by drag or wheel-scrapers. The object sought is the saving of time and expense.

When road im- provement necessi- tates the widening of cuts, the work is too often done with picks. The hard ground is loosened and torn down by hand digging, and then carted away. Material saving in time and money may be effected by throwing down the after which the

���Plan of appropriate loading for cut work

���Elevation of approximate loading for cut work

���banks by blasts, loosened soil may be moved with scrapers or by wagons. The exact nature of the loading will depend on the depth of the cut and the nature of the ground to be moved.

The high side in a road which is caused by a boulder or hard bank on one side, or by the washing away of

��earth on the other side, is now too often left as an impediment to progress. Light blasts are proving effective for loosening this material so that it can be removed by a drag scraper or road machine.

The stumps, boul- ders and ledges in the side ditches are now largely neg- lected. This causes baddrainage. Their removal can be suc- cessfully accom- plished only when explosives are used. Old water breaks or "thank you marms" are also at- tacked by explo- sives, as blasting is most effective in getting rid of these. Many of our hill roads are now trou- bled with short, dan- gerous curves where skidding and colli- sions are always to be expected. Too little attention is given to correcting the conditions. The new dynamite method of relief is to shoot off the point of the cliff if around the outside pomt, or to widen the side hill cut if the curve points into the hill. The bank may be shot away by heavy charges that will blow all of the soil down the hill, or the ground may be loosened and removed by scrapers or road machines.

Much interest is now being shown in tree planting along private and pul)lic

��Correcting a heavy grade

by building a culvert and

cutting down the hill

��the road ])asses

�� �