US1489783A - Process of road building - Google Patents

Description

A rifl 8 1924.

p M. L. ONEIL PROCESS OF ROAD BUILDING Filed March 14. 1922 Fig. 2.

W/fnesses.

Apr. 8, 1924.-

PATENT OFF'IQE.

UR'I? L. ONEIL, OF FORT SHAW, MONTANA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ROBERT G. DAY, OF GREAT FALLS, MONTANA, AND ONE-HALF TO MARTHA J. ONEIL, 01 SUN RIVER, MONTANA.

rnocnss or ROAD BUILDING.

Application m March 14, 1922. Serial No. 548,748.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MURT L. ONEIL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fort Shaw, in the county of Cascade and State of Montana, have invented certain new and usefullmprovements in Processes of Road Building, of which the followingv is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention 'relates to rocesses for building roads, more especial y gravel and sand roads, and one of its ob ects is to agitate the gravel so as to work the larger pebbles or stones to a position where they may thereafter be readily worked to the bottom of the road.

.Another object of the invention is 'to agitate the surface of the remodeled road so as to extract any large stones near the surface and thereafter work the same to-' waril the outside-edge of the crown of'the roa Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a partial section through a sub-grade, showin the gravel road in elevation as formed y processes now in use.

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing one of the steps of my process, and

Figure 3 is a similar view, showing the various positions of the different sizes of gravel in the completed road.

In building gravel roads the ideal formation is to have the large size stones along the bottom and at the edges of the'road, then a layer of the next smaller size gravel, andso on to the surface of the road, which should be composed of the finest gravel only. To this end it has been the usual practice to screen the gravel into various ades and then place it in layers on the roa but quite often after using this expensive rocess the ideal condition is not attaine for the reason that the process of spreading and dragging necessary to secure a true and umform surface tends to work the fine material to the bottom, leaving the coarse particles on top, thus a ain roducing a condition exactly oppose to t e ideal. By the use of the hereinafter described process the exensive process of screenmg the gravel can 0 dispensed with and at the same time a road is built having substantially the ideal formation heretofore referred to.

Where my process is to be used in connection with rebuilding a gravel road which has become hardened and compacted by much usage, etc., the aggregates. are first loosened by means of a scarifier in a manner well understood by those skilled in the art of road building. After the gravel is loosened in this manner a blade grader is drawn therethrough by a caterpillar or other tractor. In this step of the process the blade is set at an acute angle with the direction of travel with two or three feet'of the forward end of the blade fpartly buried in the gravel, the remainder o the blade being useful in pushing the gravel forward and to one side. One, two or more round trips are made with the blade grader, depending on the width of the gravel surface and the size and,percentage of the larger size stones. By this method the gravel is thoroughly mixed and is formed into one or two ridges paralleling the center line of the road. During this process of building up the ridge or ridges the larger size stones tend to run ahead of the smaller aggregates 4 and, therefore, take positions at the base of the ridges, asindicated by the numerals 1, 2 and 3 in Figures 2 and 3. Of course, the more the material is worked in this manner, the greater will be the degree of separation between the various grades .of the material.

After the ridges are formed' as shown in Figure 2 it is preferable, though not always necessary, to agitate the surface of tie ridges by drawing a scarifier, rake or other toothed apparatus along the top of the ridges, thereby further aiding in bringing the larger size stones to the surface.

The gravel being laced in the condition just described, the lads grader is again brought into use. The grader is drawn a number of times along the rid es, the blade being being set so asto gra ually spread the gravel back over the sub-grade. ere again the larger size stonestraveling faster than the smaller; ones reach the su -grade first and thereby form the base of the gravel road, the next smaller size stones covering the former, and so on, the fine gravel forming the u per surface of the road.

After t e ridges have been worked back in the manner'just described, it is, of course, possible that some large stones may remain near the surface, and it is, therefore, advisable, though not always necessary, to draw a scarifier or other toothed apparatus over the suface 'of the road, thereby agitating the gravel to the depth of one or two inches, which will bring any of the remaining large stones to the surface of the road. The blade grader ma then be drawn over the surface, moving t e larger stones to the edge and base of the road. In these last trips of the blade grader. any soft spots remaining are found by the weight of the tractor and are filled in by the material carried by the blade of the grader. It may be here stated that during the respreading operation a surplus of crown is carried on the surface whlch is gradually dlminished as the surface approaches'the proper cross section, the purpose being to reserve enough of the fine material to cover the large size stones toward the edge of the road.

While the foregoing process has been described in connection with rebuilding roads, it is, of course, to be understood that the same may be as well used in new road construction and with equally beneficial results. In either case a binder, such as clay or the like, may be used if necessary; this is done by spreading the clay over the gravel before the process begins.

In Figure 1 of the drawing the numerals 5 and 6 indicate hard and soft spots, respectively, which necessarily result from an indiscriminate mixing of the various sizes of stones forming the gravel roadbed.

In accordance with the patent statutes, I have described what'I now believe to be the best embodiment of the invention, but I do not Wish to be understood thereby as limiting myself or the scope of the invention, as many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention; all such I aim to include in the scope of the ap ended claims.

l-Vhat I claim as new and esire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A process of building gravel roads, which includes blading the material into one or more ridges, whereby a portion of the larger stones descend to the bottom of the ridge or ridges, and then blading the material of the ridges so as to respread the gravel.

over the road bed, thereby causing practically all of the larger stones to descend to the road bed.

2. A process of building ravel roads, which includes adding a bin ing material to the gravel, mixing the gravel andbinding material by blading the same into one or more ridges, whereby a portion of the larger stones descend to the bottom of the ridge or ridges, and then blading the material of the ridges so as to respread it over the road bed, thereby causing practically all of the larger stones to descend to the road bed.

3. A process of building roads, including the reserving of a portion. of the fine material for the surface of the road by means of blading the material into one or more ridges so as to cause a portion of the larger stones to descend to the base of the ridge or ridges, and then gradually blading the material to proper cross-section, whereby the larger stones first reach the sub-grade, leaving a large portion of the fine material for the surface.

4. A process of building gravel roads, which includes working the gravel into a longitudinal ridge, agitating the surface of the ridge, and gradually respreading the gravel over the roadbed.

5. A process of building gravel roads or the like, which includes working the gravel into a ridge, respreading the gravel over the roadbed to form a crown, agitating the surface of the crown, and moving the pebbles thus brought to the surface to the edge of the crown.

6. A process of building gravel roads, which includes blading the gravel into one or more ridges, agitating the surface of the ridges, gradually blading the ridges to respread the gravel over the sub-grade of the road to form a crown, and agitating the surface of the crown.

7. A process of building gravel roads, which includes working the gravel into one or more ridges, gradually blading the ridges to respread the gravel over the sub-grade of the road to form a crown, agitating the surface of the crown, and removing the stones brought to the surface by such agitation.

8. A process of rebuilding gravel roads, which includes scarifying the surface of the road, blading the loosened gravel into one or more ridges, gradually respreading the gravel over the sub-grade of the road to form a crown, and agitating the surface of the crown.

MURT L. ONEIL.

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