The Massachusetts Highway Commission has dis continued the use of telford construction. In their report for 1903 they give the following as their reasons for this course: "No telford foundations have been laid for two years past. Much of this class of construction has been done by the commission, and every 'contingency was supposed to have been carefully considered. Notwithstanding the careful attention to details, the results from the use of telford have been far from satisfactory. In a few cases the large stones have come to the surface in a manner which would seem to indicate a movement due to frost action. In other cases, where a fairly soft native stone was used for surfacing, the upper courses were worn away so as to leave the large stones exposed. There are few, if any, cases where equally good results cannot be obtained by the use of sand, gravel, or small stones in place of telford, and at a less. cost." These difficulties dd not seem to have been met by other road builders, and where conditions are such as to make advisable the construction of thick, heavy roads, telford construction is very commonly adopted as the cheapest form for such work.
The Massachusetts Highway Commission has also adopted for difficult construction on wet, heavy soils, a blind center drain, and consider this cheaper than the telford construction. This is described in their report for 1904 as follows: "On heavy, wet soils a center `V '-shaped drain has been substituted for the side drains and telfording. In building this type of road the earth is loosened and thrown out toward the sides, so as to give a ' V' shaped trench, with its greatest depth in the center of the proposed roadway. Narrow trenches are cut through the sides of this center trench, at intervals of 5o or more feet, connecting its lowest part with the gutters on the side, and placed at a depth and slope to thoroughly remove all water. The center and cross ditches are filled with field or wall stone, the depth of this stone varying from 12 to i8 inches at the center, and from 6 to 12 inches on the sides, the thick ness being dependent upon the character of the soil in the sub-grade. The tops of these large stones are given a crown to receive the surfacing material."