How are we to get the means to construct them? Mr. Jackson said: "Let us borrow the money on long time; the State will get it from the National Government at 3 per cent, and will give it to the several counties at 31 per cent; we will create a sinking fund, and after awhile we will have enough money in that sinking fund to pay back the original debt, and nobody will be hurt." Now there is elegant common sense in that. That is the only way that I can see possible; it is the only way I can see to construct roads throughout the State. Now, there is the construction of the road and the maintenance of the road. If you have these tremendously heavy grades, a great deal of damage will be done to the road by the waterspouts and great falls of rain in the summer time. You know when water has a great fall it rushes along very rapidly and tears the road all to pieces. Don't you see that a heavy-graded road will cost more in twenty years to keep in order than it would have taken originally to have built it with an easy grade? Here is the point we want to get at, and in which we are deficient. Now, my idea about the convicts is this: You talk about slaves. Well, I am acquainted with the times of slavery. I was the owner of slaves; I knew their expenses, and at every turn I had to foot the bill, and I worked those people to the best advantage. Well, here is a convict; you may call him a slave. Has not the State of Virginia got to furnish all his wants? It is nothing but slave labor for the time being. A gentleman here said something about the convict and the henroost. Now, we were talking in our county about getting some convict labor to build a portion of a new road which was to be constructed there, and the women were not at all alarmed about their henroosts. It is my opinion that convict labor can be used, if not too much is paid for it, and, as one of our friends here has said, the State of Virginia should help to defray the expense. Of course I know that convict labor is not as good as hired labor; you can not get as much out of it, but still you can get good out of it if properly managed. Mr. H. W. ANDERSON. Mr. President: The committee on organization of a permanent "Good Roads Association" has been in session this afternoon, and thinks it best to submit its report now, so that it may be considered during adjournment. The committee has thought over the matter very carefully, and as an experiment it has been thought best to submit a brief draft of a constitution and by-laws and plan of organization, and to leave the matter of the work of the association, when organized, in the hands of a general board, as provided for in this constitution. It is the idea of the committee, and I believe of those here generally, that after the State Good Roads Association has organized, it will be the duty of that organization to see that subordinate associations are formed in the different counties, in order that enthusi asm in the subject may continue to be aroused. No provision has been made, however, for the organization of these subassociations, as that has been considered beyond the power of this committee. With regard to the appointment of a secretary and treasurer, it has been considered that in order to make that office effective, the secretary should be a paid officer, but as no financial arrangements have been made we have left that also in the hands of the general board. I will now read the report of the committee: CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE 1.-Name. The name of this organization shall be the Virginia State Good Roads Association. ARTICLE 2.-Objects. The objects of the organization shall be to awaken general interest in the improvement of public roads, suggest methods of building and maintaining them, secure the legislation, State or national, that may be necessary for their establishment and support, and to conduct or foster such publications as may serve these purposes. ARTICLE 3.-Membership. Any citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia who is interested in the general improvement of the roads of the Commonwealth, may become a member of this association upon the payment of an initiation fee of 25 cents, and a fee of 25 cents each year thereafter, payable at the time of the regular annual meeting. ARTICLE 4.-Officers. The officers of the association shall be a president, a first vice-president, ten second vice-presidents-one from each Congressional district of the State, all of whom shall be elected by the association—and a secretary and treasurer, who shall be elected annually by the general board. ARTICLE 5.- Government. SECTION 1. The management of the affairs of the association shall be vested in a general board, composed of the president and the eleven vice-presidents. They shall fix such rules for the conduct of the business of the association as they may deem proper. Any vacancies in the general board may be filled by the president. Five members shall constitute a quorum. SEC. 2. There shall be an executive committee, composed of the president, first vice-president, and the secretary and treasurer, who shall control the affairs of the association when the general board is not in session. SEC. 3. The president shall, at the annual meetings, appoint the following standing committees: On finance, five members; on legislation, five members. The committees shall perform such duties as may be assigned to them by the executive committee. ARTICLE 6.-Amendments. This constitution may be amended at any regular meeting of the association by a vote of a majority of members present. ARTICLE 5.-SEC. 1. Upon motion of Mr. Anderson, section 1, article 5, was amended as follows: "Any vacancy may be filled by the general board.” Adopted as amended. On motion, the report was laid on the table, to be taken up at the conclusion of the programme at the night session. Judge CHALKLEY. I move that a committee of five be appointed to take into consideration and recommend to the Convention the names of those whom they think would be suitable as permanent officers of the association to be organized after the draft of the constitution is passed upon. The motion was adopted. Dr. Cullen offered the following resolution, which was referred to the committee on resolutions: Resolved, That the employment of State and county convicts in making roads, crushing of rock for macadamizing, and the transportation of the rock to localities adjacent to the railroads at the expense of the State, takes precedence of all other questions. NIGHT SESSION. Mr. H. A. Gillis, in the absence of Mr. C. C. Wentworth, read the latter's paper on the subject of "Highway bridges," as follows: COUNTRY ROAD BRIDGES. By C. C. WENTWORTH. Part of the making of a good road lies in making the bridges good. A good bridge is one that at a reasonable first cost is strong and durable, accommodates the traffic, and requires the least yearly expenditure for its maintenance. The good appearance of the finished bridge is also to be considered; but for ordinary county road bridges that good effect in looks which always follows the execution of a well-planned engineering work may be relied on to fulfill this desideratum. A neatly designed portal is generally used to ornament the structure. It should be entirely devoid of the very slender open ironwork that is often found on portals and which is always disfiguring. It may be stated that since iron structures can be built at almost as low a first cost as wooden ones, there should be as little wood used in the bridge as possible. Even the joists that carry the flooring should be of iron or steel; timber appears at present to be the best adapted material for the flooring itself. If metal joists are used, which are simply rolled beams, the cost of the bridge will probably be not increased beyond what will be the amount expended in the first renewal of the timber joists. It is an easy matter to take up and renew a floor plank that shows signs of decay, but to renew or even examine the timber joists is a difficult undertaking, The supports for the ends of the bridge should be of stone whenever stone can be procured. The plan of using iron cylinder piers is to be avoided if possible. Masonry ought to be made of reasonably well-shaped stone laid up in real cement mortar. The cement must set hard in a week or less. If the stones used are hard and durable their shape is of little importance, provided they are all held together in a solid mass by good cement. In order to make good cement mortar it is absolutely necessary to have not only good cement, but also clean, sharp sand. By looking after these points, a wall can be had at a low cost that will stand indefinitely, as far as the masonry is concerned. If no good stone can be procured, then iron cylinders of from 24 to 5 feet in diameter are used. These are made of iron plates not less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness, bent into a cylinder and riveted; each pair is also braced together across the bridge. These cylinders are filled with concrete. A good plan is to bolt them to a platform of timber placed low enough to insure its being always wet, so that they can not settle or be pushed over. For short spans, up to say 30 feet, rolled beams can be used with the floor plank laid directly on them. For longer spans there is no better form of bridge than that known as the Pratt truss. These are generally through bridges, or what are called half-through or pony trusses, the latter being used for spans up to about 80 feet. For very long spans a modified form of Pratt truss is sometimes used, which has the ends of its top chord somewhat inclined, instead of being level, which trusses are known as elliptic, or Baltimore trusses. In pony-truss bridges the sides are from 6 to 10 feet in height, so that there is no room for overhead bracing to keep the top chords in position. This is the weak feature of a pony truss, and is to be guarded against by making the vertical posts with a rigid connection to every floor beam, so that by their stiffness they hold the top chord in place, the top of each post being connected to the top chord. There ought to be a post at each end of every cross floor beam, and the inclined end post should extend straight from the end of the span to the top of the first vertical post. There is a kind of truss used sometimes that has the end post meeting the top chord at a point several feet from the top of the first vertical. This form should be entirely discarded, for the reason that every panel point of the top chord should have a vertical post to support it and keep it in line. It makes no difference how much the end post is inclined, provided the height of the side truss is kept one-sixth to onetenth of the span. It is a good plan to make the vertical posts of a pony truss about 2 feet wide at their lower ends where they connect to the cross girder, and taper them up to the top, where they are made small enough to enter the top chord. The 2 feet of width of the base makes it convenient to connect them rigidly to the cross floor beam. Through Pratt truss bridges are used for spans longer than 80 feet. These have inclined end posts, but as the trusses are high enough to admit of cross bracing overhead there is no need of the same dependence on the vertical posts to keep the top chords in place, so that the first vertical is made a tension member. The head room over the floor to the underside of the portal bracing should be not less than 14 feet. The floor joists of all county road bridges ought to be proportioned to carry a live or rolling load of 100 pounds to the square foot of floor surface. This will provide for any heavy single load that may be met with on such roads, so that it can go anywhere on the bridge with safety. As it is not at all likely that a great number of such heavy loads will happen to be on the bridge at one time, so as to cover all the floor at once, the cross floor beams that come at every panel point may be proportioned for a lighter load, 80 pounds per square foot of floor surface being sufficient for them. If the cross girders, or floor beams, are 15 feet apart and the roadway 12 feet wide, the capacity of each floor beam will be, by the above rule, 14,400 pounds, or say a wagon weighing 6 tons. If the bridge is packed full of cattle for a length of two panels, or say 30 feet, this is also provided for, and is the heaviest load that is likely to occur. The trusses that carry the cross floor beams and joists of the roadway may be proportioned for a little less live load than the floor, for the reason, again, of the extreme unlikelihood of the whole bridge being fully loaded at one time. For bridges of 100-foot span, 80 pounds per square foot of floor is enough for the trusses. For 125-foot spans, 75 pounds is enough; for 150-foot spans, 70 pounds; for 175-foot spans, 65 pounds; and for 200-foot spans or over, 60 pounds is sufficient. In each case the live load for the joists of 100 pounds and the load for the cross floor beams is to be 80 pounds, as before. The length of the panels into which a truss is divided depends on whether metal or timber joists are to be used. If of timber, they should not be more than 15 to 18 feet long, as long sticks are generally hard to get for renewals; and the longer the panels the more timber there is per foot run of bridge to renew. If metal joists are used there is no reason why panels of 20 to 23 feet long should not be used, and such panel length will be found to be economical; as then there are fewer panels, and fewer pieces for the bridge builder to make and erect. And in this way the cost of 10103-No. 11- -4 a bridge with long panels and metal joists is little if any greater than one with short panels and timber joists. Timber joists should not be spaced more than 2 feet apart, and the floor plank should not be less than 2 inches in thickness. With joists 2 feet apart, the following sizes are proportioned to a live load of 100 pounds to the square foot of floor surface: 3 by 10 inch for 12-foot 3-inch span. These spans of from 12 feet 3 inches to 19 feet 9 inches may of course be short span bridges of that length or the panel length of a truss bridge. With steel joists spaced 3 feet apart, they may be used for the following spans or panel lengths, these being for the ordinary light sections rolled of the given depths. Rolled beams 5 inches deep for 11-foot span. Rolled beams 6 inches deep for 13-foot 6-inch span. Rolled beams 7 inches deep for 16-foot span. With these spans the beams will deflect under the extreme load, but not enough to be objectionable for highway travel. These beams rest on the cross-floor beams at the panel points, and these latter for ordinary bridge spans may be made of rolled beams also. For bridges with a 12-foot-wide roadway 12-inch beam will answer for panel lengths up to 17 feet; for a 14-foot roadway up to 13 feet; and for a 16-foot roadway up to 10-foot panel lengths. A 15-inch rolled beam will answer for panel length up to 27 feet for a 12-foot roadway, to 20 feet for a 14-foot roadway, and to 15 feet for a 16-foot roadway. These floor beams may be either suspended from the under side of the lower chords, or connected to the vertical posts above the lower chords. A good bridge can be built in either way, and one is no stronger for carrying travel than the other; for every point of a bridge is suspended in one way or another, and the point is to make the mode of suspension strong enough for its duty. The floor plank should be laid squarely across the bridge, and never in more than one thickness, as the space between will hold water and dirt, which hasten the decay of the floor. To keep the hubs of the wheels from striking the trusses there should be a line of guard timber bolted to the floor on each side of the roadway, which will hold the wheels at a safe distance. This, which it is well to have, makes what is known as a hub plank unnecessary, for a more unsightly object than a hub plank, warped out of shape and of no use, is hard to find. Also the abomination known as a lattice hub guard may well be discarded, as it is too low for a hand rail and too high from the floor to prevent a small animal from going under; and as a means of keeping hubs from the trusses, except by creating fear in the mind of the driver lest he should by chance hit it, it is not a success. Just what to provide as a means of preventing a traveler from falling off the bridge is one of the unsettled points in the building of highway bridges. Five or six lines of iron rods from three-eighths to three-fourths inch in diameter strung through the center line of each truss are cheap, neat, and effective. These can be joined together by threaded pipe couplings and tightened up against the end posts, through the center of which they pass. A wooden fence is as unsightly as the hub |