Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/211

 might be avoided by passing along the adjacent valleys; at present the inclinations are inconveniently steep, and long continued. I might instance many principal lines, over which I have had frequent occasion to travel: I shall select the great road from Holyhead, through North Wales to Shrewsbury; and from thence by Birmingham and Coventry to London. On the Welsh portion of it, those parts which have been improved under the direction of the Parliamentary Commissioners for the Holyhead road, the inclinations were formerly (in many instances) as much as one in six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, the width at the same time frequently not exceeding twelve feet, without protection on the lower side, and the roadway itself of improper construction. The improvements which have lately been made in North Wales, I beg leave to submit as models for roads through hilly countries, although these improvements have been made through the most difficult and precipitous district of that country, the longitudinal inclinations are in general less than one in thirty; in one instance, for a considerable distance, there was no avoiding one in twenty-two, and in another, for about two hundred yards, one in seventeen; but in these two cases, the surface of the roadway being made peculiarly smooth and hard, no inconvenience is experienced by wheeled carriages. On flat ground, the breadth of the roadway is thirty-two feet, where there is side cutting not exceeding three feet, the breadth is twenty-eight, and along any steep ground and precipices, it is twenty-two, all clear within the fences; the sides are protected by stone walls, breast and retaining walls and parapets; great pains have been bestowed on the cross drains, also the draining the ground, and likewise in constructing firm and substantial foundations for the metalled part of the roadway. From Shrewsbury upwards, the road at present is encumbered with many hills, all of which might be avoided,