Publications of the University of Texas Publications Committee: W. J. BA:TTLB E. c. BARKER J. C. ToWNES A. CASWELL ELLIS w. s. CARTER R.A.LAW KiLLIS CAMPBELL J. A. LOMAX F. w. SIMONDS A. C. JUDSON The University publishes bulletins six times a month. These comprise the official publications of the University, publica­tions on humanistic and scientific subjects, bulletins prepared by the Department of Extension and by the Bureau of Munic­ipal Research, and other bulletins of general educational in­terest. With the exception of special numbers, any bulletin will be sent to a citizen of Texas free on request. All communica­tions about University publications should be addressed to the Editor of University Publications, University of Texas, Austin. B90-515-15h BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 1915: No. 26 MAYS 1915 Street Paving in Texas Edited by Edward T. Paxton Of the Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference MUNICIPAL RESEARCH SERIES No.9 Published by the University six times a month and entered as second class matter at the postoffice at Austin, Texas ~beneflt8 or education and ot useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free gov­ernment. Sam Houston. Cultivated mind is the guardian genius ot democracy. . . . It is the ouly dictator that freemen acknowl­edge and the ouly security that fre&­men desire. Mirabeau B. Lamar. FOREWORD Tbis bulletin presents a brief exposition of the importance of street paving as a munieipal problem and of the magnitude of the public interest involved, and offers a modieum of information about the pavements which have been laid in Texas, and a few suggestions, in the hope that their possession. may aid city engi­neers and city councils and cmnmissions in the intelligent care and treatment of Texas streets. The editor expresses his special indebtedness to Mr. L. W. Kemp, Manager of the Sales Department, Paving and Roads Division, of The Texas Company, and to Prof. E. C. H. Bantel, of the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas. E. T. P. THE STREET-PAVING PROBLEM ''Street paving in American cities has not kept pace with the other departments of municipal public work. This is principally due to the fact that the theory and practice of paving city streets has not been developed along scientific lines, and this condition is in turn largely attributable to the fact that the work has not been sufficiently under control of competent engineers. The pub­lic does not understand or appreciate that street paving is a branch of municipal work requiring for its proper conduct the knowledge and experience of able engineers. The engineer has been ignor-ed and unappreciated, and his function has been as­sumed by other civic authorities. The results, painfully obvious in most of our cities, are what might be expected. ''It may be confidently asserted that the first and most im­portant step in any successful attempt at reform in American street paving practice must be the recognition that it is a branch of municipal work which requires the services of the high-class engineer, whose advice and authority must be accepted and al­lowed to control. ·with this first step taken, the others neces­sarily will follow automatica1ly. ''* This portrayal of conditions is blunt, and the four years that have passed since it was written may have tempered the situation somewhat; but not many moments of reflection are needed to convince one that as a portrayal of conditions it is still essentially correct. To take a single more recent instance, in the Summer of 1913 the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland, Ohio, began an investigation of the paving conditions in that city. The report of the investigating committee says: ''Communications were di­rected to civic organizations and to city officials in a number of the more important cities in this country, for the purpose of procuring reports and other data that might assist your commit­tee in its work. From several of these cities valuable information was r-eceived, bt~t we were surprised to find how •little tabulated information was obtainable upon this important subject, and how *Mr. Samuel Whinery, consulting engineer, of New York, in the Engineering R.ecord of September 30, 1911. 6 Bulletin of the University of Texas little consider{ltion had been given to it by civic organizations and city officials in the more important cities of this country.""" Here is a report presented scarcely mQre than a year ago ; and a subsequent investigation of paving conditions in Akron, O'hio, brings to light a practically parallel situation. A mile of paved street is an appreciated asset to a town or city; but it is not so imposing as a fire station, or a high school, or a storage reservoir; and as a piece of construction it does not make such a popular app.eal as any kind of a structure that stands higher than a man and can be seen in three dimensions. But, with street paving costing $2.00 a square yard, the paving of a mile of street 30 feet wide repl'esents an investment of $35,000. The net 0onstruction cost of a single mile of pavement would put up a respectable eight-room brick school building. Two miles of pavement are an investment of the same magnitude as a complete steam-electric light and power plant capable of serving a com­munity of from 7,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. Then, with the se­leCJtion of paving material left, as it often is, to lie between a plastic Council committee and a smooth-tongued contractor; with scant attention, or even scant intelligent interest, given to the matter by the people who pay for the streets or the people who use them; with inspection perfun.etory during construction and often entirely lacking after the pavement is laid; is there any wonder that, under these conditions, the streets of the American city have been a sinkhole in whi·ch, constantly, dollar after dollar of taxpayers' money has found its resting place? The first step, then, in the direction of better paved streets consists in making the people who are interested in paved stl'eets aware of what a big, efficiency-demanding proposition street pav­ing is. The second step consists in making available all the informa­ tion possible regarding the various kinds of pavement and pav­ ing materials, their nature, cost, and such history as they may have made for themselves in the cities where they have been laid. This material is of intel'est and profit not only to the citizen, but also to the city engineer. Failure and success, as applied to street paving, are relative terms. There is practically no kind of pave­ *Cleveland Pavements, a report of the Municipal Committee of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, April 18, 1914. ment whose history of service is not checkered with good records and bad, and no single kind can be recommended indiscrimi­nately or censured indiscriminately. The performance of a pave­ment depends on the honesty and efficiency of its construction, the kind of care taken of it, the climate, the soil, the kind of base used, the kind of traffic to which the pavement is subjected, and the care taken of the streets, as to cleaning and repair, after the pavement is laid. The only successful way to select a street pavement is first to make note of the conditions under which it will he required to operate, and second to examine the perform­ance of various kinds of pavement already in servi'. They are intended for asphalt filler, the asphalt covering the entire surface as well as filling the interstices. Since their introduction in Texas they have almost entirely super­seded the old style brick pavement. The first contract for vertical fiber brick pavement was awarded in Greenville in February, 1913. They have since been laid in Houston, Waco, Galveston, Fort Worth, Denison, Temple, Corsioona, McKinney and Sulphur Springs. Ennis has laid (1915) a vertical fiber brick pavement with asphalt filler. In McKinney the cost for 3-inch bricks on 5-inch concrete base was $1.95 per square yard. WESTURMITE ''Westurrnite,'' a patented pavement, is similar in composition to Bitulithic and asphaltic concrete, differing mainly in that the asphalt is not heated as in those pavements, but is dissolved by chemicals and laid cold. The first laid in Texas was completed in March, 1914, in Bryan, at $2.15. It has also been l-aid in Dallas and Houston. L . . W. KEMP. SUPPLEMENTARY SUGGESTIONS Although the choice of a type of pavement is a matter t.S streets of large cities 3Y2-inch or 4-inch oceosoted wood blocks are to be recommended. This kind of pavement will bulge and buckle, however, if it does not re­ceive traffic enough to keep it hammered down, and, indeed, it is rather doubtful if many streets in Texas afford this traffic. It is important in the use of wood blocks to keep the streets watered, and the blocks thus subjected to about the same amount of moist­ure all the time; for the result of a long, dry summer is usually to render the blocks porous, and a continuous rain following such a dry spell will cause the blocks to absorb an enormous amount of moisture in spite of their creosote treatment. It is readily seen that on but few streets is the traffi.c heavy enough and the watering continuous enough to keep the pavement in shape. For less heavily traveled business streets Bitulithic, asphaltic concrete, sheet asphalt, and similar materials, seem well adapted. While these pavements probably will not stand the heavy traffic that creosoted wood blocks would bear, they seem capable of meeting the traffic requirements of nearly any Texas business street at the present time. But the tendency in the use of these materials, as in the use of creosoted wood blocks, is to overpave; that is, to put the pavement on a street on which traffic is not sufficiently heavy to keep the pavement in condition. An asphalt pavement is like a rubber band; if it is not used it soon loses its strength. Many instances are reported of asphalt streets that are badly cracked apparently because of lack of use, whereas the same pavements in the same city on more heavily traveled streets are smooth and in fair condition. For residence str.eets and f:or business streets of small towns these paving materials gradually give way before brick, which is gaining great favor; the desirability of brick becoming greater as the traffic on the street becomes lighter. Especially where streets are seldom cleaned, and where horses are allowed to stand hitched in one place for a long time, brick has an advantage over an asphaltic material because accumulation of dirt and manur<' has a tendency to rot asphalt. For some of these streets, where traffic is light and motor vehicles are not common, a well built and well kept gravel or macadam surface is still sometimes ail satisfactory as any kind of more permanent pavement. Indeed, in choosing a street surface it is worth while noting the changes in surface requirements imposed by the present pre­ponderant use of automobiles and commercial motor vehicles. It is probably true that in Texas the horse will continue to use city pavements longer and in greater proportion than in the North and East, where cities are closer together, roads better, intercity motor traffic more feasible, and where the cities·' rural neighbors make greater use of automobiles. Yet, at the present time, the heavy trucking in Texas cities, even as small as 20,000, is practically all done by motor trucks; and the use of automo­biles by all classes of vehi·cle users is steadily increasing. The concrete results with regard to street building and surfacing are, the average business street is subjected to a heavier traffic than formerly ; on all streets velocity of traffic has increased, and the principal destructive traffic force which a pavement has to stand up against is the velooity and suction of rubber tir·es, rather than the impllict of horses' hoofs and the grinding of iron tires as heretofore; less dirt collects in the streets, and particularly less of the kind of dirt that causes pavements to rot; surfaces may now be used that were formerly rejected because they were thought too smooth to give secure footing to the heavy­burdened draft horse; and pavements, excellent in every other respect, which were formerly discriminated against on account of the excessive noise that horses made on them, may now be freely used, because it is doubtful if a motor vehicle makes more noise on any one kind of pavement than on any other. One further point which is receiving attention in the choice of a street surface is the absorptive property of the surface with regard to artificial light. With the same number of kilowatts applied, a smooth surfaced paved street is much brighter than a muddy road, because one surface reflects light while the other absorbs or consumes it. So, where other things are equal and two kinds of pavement have equally good records and prom­ise to fulfill traffic and climatic requirements equally well, the choice of the kind whicll absorbs the least light insures a better lighted street for the same expenditure, and hence works economy for the city. Finally, no kind of pavement, no matter how well chosen or how good the materials and workmanship, will make good unless it is laid on a :firm and substantial base. In the way of practical recommendations for the betterment of paving conditions, applicable in almost any city, there is perhaps nothing more appropriate than the extract quoted below from the report, previously referred to*, of the committoo of the Cleve­land Chamber of Commerce: "Through its investigation of the subject, your committee has reached the conclusion that the pl'esent poor condition of the pavements is largely due: ''1. To the failure to properly repair and keep up pavements between and immediately adjacent to the street car tracks. '' 2. To the fact that (through lack of sufficient appropriations for paving maintenance) the city has adopted the policy of re­pairing only those pavements that are actually dangerous, giving little or no attention to the smaller holes and broken places, whi·ch, in the interest of economy, should receive prompt attention. '' 3. Funds have been wasted in the repair of pavements that should be repaved, in the effort to prolong their life far beyond the limit to which it was intended the pavement should last. ''4. The older pavements laid under obsolete specifications are unable to withstand the vibration and wear of pres•ent traffic. ''5. Demands of property owners protesting against the cost of appropriate pavements receive undue recognition from city officials, with the result that :first cost takes precedence over ulti­mate economy. ''6. The growth of the city and changing conditions require alteration of sewers, water pipe and other underground structures, making necessary the frequent tearing up and replacement of pavements. "7. Where pavements have been torn up, replacements have not been properly made. ''8. No traffic statistics have been kept as a basis for determin­ing the value of the various kinds of construction. •see page 5. "9. The city has never had a comprehensive paving program. Miles of new streets are laid each year, but no means are provided for keeping them in proper repair. "A large number of pavements that were laid years ago have no con~rete base. They were sufficient to bear the traffic of that day. The adv.ent of the heavy motor truck has caused them to wear and break down rapidly. Formerly pavements in rough ctmdition, being used only by slowly moving vehicles, were con­sidered sufficient to meet the needs. With the :Bast moving ve­hicle and heavier truck of the present day, a smoother and more durable roadway is demanded. ''City officials of succeeding administrations have not seemed to realize the importance of keeping the city streets in proper repair. For a number of years the annual appropriations for this purpose have been .entirely inadequate. As a result, the pavements have become worse from year to year, until the situa­tion has reached a crisis demanding immediate attention. The loss to the community due to failure to properly maintain the pavements can not b.: determined accurately. The shortening of the life of pavements and the added maintenance cost form but a small part of the loss. To this must be added the wear and tear upon vehicles, the loss in horsepower in hauling loads over such surfaces, the added cost of street cleaning due to the uneven condition, and the injury to health due to resultant insanitary conditions. ''We are firmly of the opinion that if the true proportion of this loss wel'e known to the community, present pract~ces would not be tolerated, and public opinion would force city officials to give proper attention to this very important municipal function an.d provide ways and means for proper maintettance. '' NOTE Local street paving situations have been made the subject of report and recommendation in many cities during the past few years. Among the agencies which have undertaken local studies al'e the Chi,cago Bureau of Public Efficiency, the Cincinnati Bureau of Municipal Research, the Cleveland Chamber of Com­merce, and the Municipal University of Akron, Ohio. The find­ings of these four agencies have been published, in each case in pamphlet form, and the pamphlets (which may probably still be obtained by addressing the several institutions and organiza­tions) contain much of value to anyone particularly intere.<;ted in city streets. The report of the Municipal University of Akron (Akron Pavements, by Fred E. Ayer, Municipal University, Akron, Ohio, June, 1914) contains, in particular, a select bibli­ography of recent books and articl€S on city paving materials, compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers. INDEX TO PAVEMENTS LAID IN TEXAS Page Asphalt: Bitulithic ............................ ................ 14 Oklahoma rock ............ ..................... .......12 Sheet .... . ....... . .. .. ......... . ............. . ......13 Uvalde rock . . ..... . .............. . ... . ......... . .....13 W esturmite . ........ . ...... . ........ . . . ... . . .. .......17 Asphalt macadam .......................................15 Asphaltic concrete .. . . ... . .......... . ..... . ... . . ... ......15 Bitulithic ..... . ........... . . . . . ........... .. . . ... . . . ...14 Bois d'arc blocks......... ...............................11 Brick: Vertical fiber ......... ........... ............. ........ 17 Vitrified ............................... ............ ..12 Cedar blocks .......... ............... ............. ......12 Concrete: Dolarway ................ .. ..... . ... . . . ... . .. . ... . ...16 Granited . . .......................................... 16 Granitoid . ... .. .. ... . . ... .. ......... . ... . . . ..........14 Hassam . .. .. .. ... . .. . ... .. ....... . ..... . ..... . ... . ..16 Plain . . ...................... . ................ . .....17 Reinforced .... . ... . .... . ........ . . . ............. .. ...16 Vibrolithic .. . .... . ................ . . .. ... ... ... ... ...15 Creosoted wood blocks . . . ... ........ .. ...... . .... . . . . . . . ..11 Dolarway ...... . .... . ... . .. . ....... .. .... .. ............16 "Granited" concrete............................... ... ...16 Granitoid . ... . .... . .... . .......... . ......... .. .. .. .. . ..14 Hassam .................... .. .........................16 Mesquite blocks................ ..................... .... 14 Nicholson ...... . . .. .... . ...... . ... . .... . ......... . .....10 Oklahoma rock asphalt . . ...................... .. . . . .... ..12 Pine blocks....... ...................................... 11 Plain concrete ....... . .. . .... ... ............. .. .........17 Reinforced concrete .. ...................... . ... .. .......16 Rock asphalt........................................ 12, 13 Sheet asphalt ..... .. ..... . .................. . . . .........13 Unpatented concretes . ........... . . .. .. . ........ . ........16 Uvalde rock asphalt ............ ......... ................13 Vertical fiber brick ...................................... 17 Page Vibrolithic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..........15 Vitrified brick . ................................... ......12 W esturmite .................................... . .......17 Wood blocks : Bois d'arc . . ........ . ............. . ......... . ..... . ...11 Cedar ........... . . . .... . ....... . ....................12 Creosoted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..........11 Mesquite .................. . . . .......................14 Nicholson ..... . ............................... ... . . ..10 .Pine ........................................... . .. . . 11 PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH AND REFERENCE. No. TITLE 1. A Model Charter for Texas Cities, Herman G. James, Feb. 10, 1914 (edition exhausted). 2. A Model Charter for Texas Cities, Herman G. James, March 1, 1914 (second edition). 3. Ann()urwement of Courses in Municipal Administration at the University of Texas, Herman G. James, Sept. 5, 1914. 4. Methods of Sewage Disposal for Texas Cities, Robert M. Jameson, Oct. 1, 1914 (edition exhausted). 5. A Model Civil Service Code for Texas Cities, Herman G. James, Dec. 20, 1914. 6. What Is tihe City Manager Plan? Herman G. James, Feb. 20, 1915. 7. A Student Survey of Austin, Texas, William B. Hamilton; summarized by Herman G. James, Feb. 25, 1915. 8. A Model Health Code for Texas Cities, Robert M. J·ameson, April 20, 1915. 9. Street Paving in Texas, Edited by Edward T. Paxton ; prin­cipal article by L. W. Kemp, May 5, 1915. Copies of the above bulletins ~Y be had on application to the Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference, University or Texas.