Talk:Macadam

Modern gravel roads seem pretty similar to the macadam roads of the past. Are they built the same way, or does one have nothing to do with the other? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Floydian (talk • contribs) 02:39, 3 March 2010 The difference is dirt. The road shown in the picture looks to be surfaced with "crusher fines" ^[1] while true macadam roads are covered with a layer of tessellated (nested and interlocked together by pressure and vibration) homogeneous rock, leaving voids which drain water into the base. The result looks something like this: PXL_20211005_212244099.jpg. They are built on opposing philosophies, drain vs. slough. Elrey (talk) 17:03, 7 January 2022 (UTC)Elrey

If there are two layers of the same size aggregate, then isn't that one layer? I don't feel exactly comfortable with this. I don't know enough about these things and I use Wiki to find out stuff. Help!Longinus876 (talk) 22:32, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Presumably by "layers" someone means "lifts", which are used in construction/engineering to refer to layers as placed. For example, 12 inches of gravel could be placed in two 6-inch lifts. First, six inches of gravel are put down and compacted; then, another six inches are put down and again compacted. This is done because if all the material is laid at once in one "layer" (lift) the deeper material cannot be properly compacted. 76.182.84.206 (talk) 14:18, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

... To clarify how people think about this, let me add: If you examine a cross-section of a road after it's built, you see "layers" of homogeneous material (say, a particular size of gravel, compacted to a particular density). These homogeneous layers are what an engineer initially designs, based on how thick the road needs to be to support traffic. But if you are then concerned with how to build the road, where you have to create such layers out of real materials, you may decide that a "layer" is too thick to create all in one go; you will build the "layer" in multiple lifts. Now, if one's perspective is basically how to build things, then "layer" becomes interchangeable with "lift", whereas to a person with another perspective this sounds counterintuitive. 76.182.84.206 (talk) 14:31, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

The following is clearly an exaggeration: "Stagecoaches traveling the Hagerstown to Boonsboro road in the winter took 5 to 7 hours to cover the 10-mile stretch. "

Stagecoaches use horses which walk faster than humans. Even at a slow pace 7 hours is clearly wrong. People would have been walking past these nags. It was a road, probably a dirt road before paving.

3 miles an hour is a typical human walking pace (2.5 for recreational)

A fat guy walking 10 miles on the Appalation trails takes 4.5 hours. This is a road with horses. 7 hours... come on, really? http://www.seanhenri.com/sean_henri/2007/09/a-ten-mile-hike.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_walking_speed — Preceding unsigned comment added by Strider22 (talk • contribs) 20:43, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Really!!!! On stage coaches, the horses would need to be changed every ten miles, due to exhaustion. The figure looks very reasonable. Your fat guy only has to move his own weight, how long would it take for him to walk if the surface was two foot of wet sticky mud? Pyrotec (talk) 21:57, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

In winter it rains a lot and any unimproved road becomes a sea of mud. In such cases and conditions man or horse can only walk at a snail's pace, especially if the mud is deep enough to come up to one's knees. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.145.115.55 (talk) 15:30, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

I mean, that seems logical. --The Eloquent Peasant (talk) 15:40, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

The section on Telford has measurements based on English, converted and rounded to metric, and then converted back again. Anmccaff (talk) 19:15, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

It is also using figues from particular work as though they were universal. Most Telford was layed with smaller pitchers, I'd bet. Anmccaff (talk) 19:25, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Macadam. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://archive.is/20121213000917/http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/ to http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:50, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

Why is there a section on other road building techniques in a Macadam article? Seems way off topic and there is no rhyme or reason as to why a specific two are cited. Planing to move them off to their respective articles. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 14:18, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Macadam is incorrect. MacAdam is correct— Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.29.29 (talk) 20:55, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

"Macadam" is the name of the building technique; MacAdam the name of the person. Elrey (talk) 17:08, 7 January 2022 (UTC)Elrey

It says "He advocated a central road authority with trained professional officials who could be paid a salary that would keep them from corruption. These professionals could give their entire time to these duties and be held responsible for their actions." The article would benefit from stating what this is contrast to - what was the norm at the time, what were the problems with it, and why was this an improvement? Because to readers today the fact that it would be someone's job is assumed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.87.2.38 (talk) 02:04, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

There are two terms in this article which are not automatically clear to the average oaf-on-the-street (me, for example).

One is a "shallow lift" (in the intro). No use of the word "lift" of which I'm aware fits the context. Can we get a clarification or link here?

The other is a "crowned subgrade" (in the first section, "Predecessors;" Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet​). I think I can figure out what a subgrade is, but what does "crowned" mean here? Again, a link would be helpful.

*Septegram*Talk*Contributions* 15:46, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

The word "tire/s" (and "tyre/s") is used throughout--in the early 1800's! Don't you mean "wheels"? 173.90.75.20 (talk) 05:16, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Worth noting that if limestone or gypsum is used with the addition of powdered material and water the material actually bonds

The Philadelphia Lancaster Turnpike used MacAdam/Telford's method and was completed in 1796.

https://www.lancasterhistory.org/images/stories/JournalArticles/vol20no8pp205_226_1173730.pdf

Part II describes the construction. 2601:985:A81:5950:BCB3:E1B1:19E5:9EC7 (talk) 22:48, 22 February 2025 (UTC)