ROAD LOCATION ELEMENTS INVOLVED.In general the determination of the best location for a road requires a study of the topographical fea tures of the region through which the road is to pass, and also an investigation of the nature and extent of the traffic to be provided for. Viewed as a question of economics, the best location is that for which the sum of the interest on the cost of construction and of the annual cost of maintaining the road and of conducting trans portation over it, is a minimum. The location of a wagon road is not, however, entirely a question of economics, since the location should be made with reference to the convenience and comfort, and perhaps also to the pleasure, of those who use it; and is fre quently more of a social or political question than one of economics. Only the economic features of location will be considered here, and they only briefly.
However, in locating a new wagon road, it is well to remember that the location will probably serve for many generations, and perhaps for all time, as the growing importance of the surrounding country and the location of buildings and of division lines of the land with reference to the road make it increasingly more difficult and expensive to change the location. Thus the location of a road is the field where costly errors and permanent blunders may creep in and forever fasten themselves upon the road and its users; and, worst of all, these errors become more costly as the use of the road increases.
In most parts of the United States, the roads are in the main already located, and the necessity for the location of new ones does not often arise; and hence as a rule, the only application of the principles of economic location will be in the re-location of com paratively short stretches of roads. The original location may have been fit and proper when the region was new and undeveloped, but the increase in the amount and the change in the character of the traffic may justify a very considerable change. There are many roads that could be materially improved by a careful re-location.
The principles to be observed and the methods to be em ployed in making the location of a wagon road are substantially the same as those used in the location of a railroad. The method of
examining the country and of making surveys will not be considered here, as such subjects are elaborately presented in treatises on rail road location.
The fundamental principles applicable in locating a new road or in improving an old one will be briefly considered; but no hard and fast rules can be laid down, for each road must be designed for the place it is to occupy and the service it is to render. In the loca tion of any road there will always be an opportunity to exercise keen insight and good judgment.
The subject will be considered under the four heads: distance, grades, curves, width, and placing the line.