Macadam

Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by

Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820,
in which single-sized crushed stone layers of small
angular stones are placed in shallow lifts and compacted
thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone
from the original material) may form; it may also, after
rolling, be covered with a binder to keep dust and stones
together. The method simplified what had been
considered state-of-the-art at that point.

Contents Macadam country road

Predecessors
Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet
Thomas Telford
Advent of macadam
John McAdam
McAdam's methods
First macadam in North America
McAdam's influence
Water-bound macadam
Tar-bound macadam
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Predecessors

Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet

Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet is sometimes considered the first person to bring post-Roman science to road
building. A Frenchman from an engineering family, he worked paving roads in Paris from 1757 to 1764. As
chief engineer of road construction of Limoges, he had opportunity to develop a better and cheaper method of
road construction. In 1775, Tresaguet became engineer-general and presented his answer for road
improvement in France, which soon became standard practice there.[1]

Trésaguet had recommended a roadway consisting of three layers of stones laid on a crowned subgrade with
side ditches for drainage. The first two layers consisted of angular hand-broken aggregate, maximum size 3
inches (7.6 cm), to a depth of about 8 inches (20 cm). The third layer was about 2 inches (5 cm) thick with a
maximum aggregate size of 1 inch (2.5 cm).[2] This top level surface permitted a smoother shape and protected
the larger stones in the road structure from iron wheels and horse hooves. To keep the running surface level
with the countryside, this road was put in a trench, which created drainage problems. These problems were
addressed by changes that included digging deep side ditches, making the surface as solid as possible, and
constructing the road with a difference in elevation (height) between the two edges, that difference being
referred to interchangeably as the road's camber or cross slope.[2]

Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford, born in Dumfriesshire Scotland,[3] was a surveyor

and engineer who applied Tresaguet's road building theories. In 1801
Telford worked for the Commission of Highland Roads and Bridges.
He became director of the Holyhead Road Commission between
1815 and 1830. Telford extended Tresaguet's theories, but
emphasized high-quality stone. He recognized that some of the road
problems of the French could be avoided by using cubical stone
blocks.[4] Laying Telford paving in Aspinwall,
Pennsylvania, 1908
Telford used roughly 12 in × 10 in × 6 in (30 cm × 25 cm × 15 cm)
partially shaped paving stones (pitchers), with a slight flat face on the
bottom surface. He turned the other faces more vertically than Tresaguet's method. The longest edge was
arranged crossways to the traffic direction, and the joints were broken in the method of conventional
brickwork, but with the smallest faces of the pitcher forming the upper and lower surfaces.[4]

Broken stone was wedged into the spaces between the tapered perpendicular faces to provide the layer with
good lateral control. Telford kept the natural formation level and used masons to camber the upper surface of
the blocks. He placed a 6-inch (15 cm) layer of stone no bigger than 6 cm (2.4 in) on top of the rock
foundation. To finish the road surface he covered the stones with a mixture of gravel and broken stone. This
structure came to be known as "Telford pitching." Telford's road depended on a resistant structure to prevent
water from collecting and corroding the strength of the pavement. Telford raised the pavement structure above
ground level whenever possible.

Where the structure could not be raised, Telford drained the area surrounding the roadside. Previous road
builders in Britain ignored drainage problems and Telford's rediscovery of drainage principles was a major
contribution to road construction.[5] Notably, around the same time, John Metcalf strongly advocated that
drainage was in fact an important factor in road construction, and astonished colleagues by building dry roads
even through marshland. He accomplished this by incorporating a layer of brushwood and heather.

Advent of macadam

John McAdam

John Loudon McAdam was born in Ayr, Scotland, in 1756. In 1787, he became a trustee of the Ayrshire
Turnpike in the Scottish Lowlands and during the next seven years his hobby became an obsession. He moved
to Bristol, England, in 1802 and became a Commissioner for Paving in 1806.[7] On 15 January 1816, he was
elected surveyor-general of roads for the turnpike trust and was now responsible for 149 miles of road.[7] He
then put his ideas about road construction into practice, the first 'macadamised' stretch of road being Marsh
Road at Ashton Gate, Bristol.[7] He also began to actively propagate his ideas in two booklets called Remarks
(or Observations) on the Present System of Roadmaking, (which ran nine editions between 1816 and 1827)
and A Practical Essay on the Scientific Repair and Preservation of Public Roads, published in 1819.[8]
McAdam's methods

McAdam's method was simpler, yet

more effective at protecting
roadways: he discovered that massive
foundations of rock upon rock were
unnecessary, and asserted that native
soil alone would support the road and
traffic upon it, as long as it was
covered by a road crust that would
protect the soil underneath from
Photograph of macadam road, c. water and wear.[9]
1850s, Nicolaus, California
Unlike Telford and other road
builders of the time, McAdam laid his John Loudon McAdam
roads as level as possible. His 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) road required only a rise (1756–1836)[6]
of 3 inches (7.6 cm) from the edges to the centre. Cambering and elevation of
the road above the water table enabled rain water to run off into ditches on
either side.[10]

Size of stones was central to the McAdam's road building theory. The lower 20-centimetre (7.9 in) road
thickness was restricted to stones no larger than 7.5 centimetres (3.0 in). The upper 5-centimetre (2.0 in) layer
of stones was limited to 2 centimetres (0.79 in) size and stones were checked by supervisors who carried
scales. A workman could check the stone size himself by seeing if the stone would fit into his mouth. The
importance of the 2 cm stone size was that the stones needed to be much smaller than the 4 in width of the iron
carriage tyres that travelled on the road.[5]

McAdam believed that the "proper method" of breaking stones for utility and rapidity was accomplished by
people sitting down and using small hammers, breaking the stones so that none of them was larger than six
ounces in weight. He also wrote that the quality of the road would depend on how carefully the stones were
spread on the surface over a sizeable space, one shovelful at a time.[11]

McAdam directed that no substance that would absorb water and affect the road by frost should be
incorporated into the road. Neither was anything to be laid on the clean stone to bind the road. The action of
the road traffic would cause the broken stone to combine with its own angles, merging into a level, solid
surface that would withstand weather or traffic.[12]

Through his road-building experience, McAdam had learned that a layer of broken angular stones would act
as a solid mass and would not require the large stone layer previously used to build roads. Keeping the surface
stones smaller than the tyre width made a good running surface for traffic. The small surface stones also
provided low stress on the road, so long as it could be kept reasonably dry.[13]

First macadam in North America

The first macadam road built in the United States was constructed between Hagerstown and Boonsboro,
Maryland and was named at the time Boonsborough Turnpike Road. This was the last section of unimproved
road between Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay to Wheeling on the Ohio River. Stagecoaches traveling the
Hagerstown to Boonsboro road in the winter took 5 to 7 hours to cover the 10-mile (16 km) stretch.[15][16]
This road was completed in 1823, using McAdam's road techniques, except that the finished road was
compacted with a cast-iron roller instead of relying on road traffic for compaction.[17][15][16] The second
American road built using McAdam principles was the Cumberland Road which was 73 miles (117 km) long
and was completed in 1830 after five years of work.[15][16]
McAdam's influence

McAdam's renown is due to his effective and economical

construction, which was a great improvement over the methods used
by his generation. He emphasized that roads could be constructed for
any kind of traffic, and he helped to alleviate the resentment travelers
felt toward increasing traffic on the roads. His legacy lies in his
advocacy of effective road maintenance and management. He
advocated a central road authority with trained professional officials
who could be paid a salary that would keep them from corruption. Construction of the first
These professionals could give their entire time to these duties and be macadamized road in the United
held responsible for their actions.[18] States (1823). In the foreground,
workers are breaking stones "so as
not to exceed 6 ounces [170 g] in
Water-bound macadam weight or to pass a two-inch [5 cm]
ring".[14][15][16]
McAdam's road building technology was applied to roads by other
engineers. One of these engineers was Richard Edgeworth, who filled
the gaps between the surface stones with a mixture of stone dust and water, providing a smoother surface for
the increased traffic using the roads.[19] This basic method of construction is sometimes known as water-
bound macadam. Although this method required a great deal of manual labour, it resulted in a strong and
free-draining pavement. Roads constructed in this manner were described as "macadamized."[19]

Tar-bound macadam
With the advent of motor vehicles, dust became a serious problem on
macadam roads. The area of low air pressure created under fast-
moving vehicles sucked dust from the road surface, creating dust
clouds and a gradual unraveling of the road material.[20] This problem
was approached by spraying tar on the surface to create tar-bound
macadam. On March 13, 1902 in Monaco, a Swiss doctor, Ernest
Guglielminetti, came upon the idea of using tar from Monaco's
gasworks for binding the dust.[21] Later a mixture of coal tar and
ironworks slag, patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley as tarmac, was
introduced. New macadam road construction at
McRoberts, Kentucky: pouring tar.
A more durable road surface (modern mixed asphalt pavement) 1926
sometimes referred to in the US as blacktop, was introduced in the
1920s. This pavement method mixed the aggregates into the asphalt
with the binding material before they were laid. The macadam surface method laid the stone and sand
aggregates on the road and then sprayed it with the binding material.[22] While macadam roads have now been
resurfaced in most developed countries, some are preserved along stretches of roads such as the United States'
National Road.[23]

Because of the historic use of macadam as a road surface, roads in some parts of the United States (as parts of
Pennsylvania) are often referred to as macadam, even though they might be made of asphalt or concrete.
Similarly, the term "tarmac" is sometimes colloquially applied to asphalt roads or aircraft runways.[24]

See also
Crushed stone
 History of road transport (covers the development of road-building techniques)
Road

References
1. Lay, Maxwell G (1992), Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles
That Used Them (https://books.google.com/books?id=flvS-nJga8QC&q=Tresaguet&pg=PA73),
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, p. 73, ISBN 0-8135-1758-3, retrieved 18 June
2010 Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2691-4
2. Lay (1992), p.73
3. Smiles, Samuel (1867). The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer (https://archive.org/details/lif
ethomastelfo01smilgoog). London: John Murray. pp. 331 (https://archive.org/details/lifethomast
elfo01smilgoog/page/n373). Retrieved 27 September 2011.
4. Lay (1992), p.74
5. Lay (1992), p.75
6. British Museum, Engraving by Charles Turner
7. A. W. Skempton (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and
Ireland: 1500–1830. p.416. Thomas Telford, 2002
8. McAdam, John Loudon (1824), Remarks on the Present System of Road Making; With
Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience (https://books.google.com/books?id=a9
RMAAAAYAAJ) (8th ed.), London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternobter Row,
retrieved 26 September 2011
9. Craig, David, "The Colossus of Roads" (http://www.strum.co.uk/palimps/macadam.htm),
Palimpsest, Strum.co.uk, retrieved 18 June 2010
10. McAdam (1824), p. 38
11. McAdam (1824), pp. 39–40
12. McAdam (1824), p. 41
13. Lay (1992), pp. 76–77
14. "1823 – First American Macadam Road" (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1823.htm). US
Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
15. "John Loudon MacAdam" (http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/macadam_john.htm),
Significant Scots, ElectricScotland.com, retrieved 2017-02-13
16. "1823 – First American Macadam Road" (http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm). Retrieved
2017-02-13.
17. "The History of Boonsboro" (http://www.town.boonsboro.md.us/index.asp?SEC=E4DE0ECB-A
02E-4603-8279-BAF21E62BC37). Retrieved 2017-02-13.
18. O'Flaherty, Coleman A (2002), Highways: the Location, Design, Construction and Maintenance
of Road Pavements (https://books.google.com/books?id=Ren4sWQ3jKkC&q=%22whilst+mcad
am%22&pg=PA228) (4th ed.), Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, p. 228, ISBN 0-7506-
5090-7, retrieved 18 June 2010
19. John Loudon McAdam (http://www.bruzzone.org/macadam/jmca.html), bruzzone.org, retrieved
18 June 2010
20. Claudy, C.H. "The Right Road—and Why (https://books.google.com/books?id=NLvPAAAAMA
AJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false)," The
Independent, New York, Volume 99, July, August, September 1919, 228. Retrieved on 2009-
11-3.
21. "History of asphalt road construction – Tar road construction" (http://sma-viatop.com/SMAviatop
_engl/history/teerstrassenbau.shtml?navid=9). Retrieved 31 July 2013.
22. Cavette, Chris, "Asphalt Paver" (http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/asphalt-pa
ver/printHistory), eNotes, retrieved 19 June 2010
23. "The History Of The United States' National Road" (https://jordanssurfacing.co.uk/the-history-of
-the-united-states-national-road/). Retrieved 4 February 2021.
24. Stephen T. Muench; Joe P. Mahoney; Linda M. Pierce; et al., "History" (https://archive.is/201212
13000917/http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/), WSDOT Pavement Guide (http://training.c
e.washington.edu/wsdot/), Washington State Department of Transportation, p. 2 in Module 1:
Welcome and Introduction, archived from the original (http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot/
Modules/01_introduction/01-2_body.htm) on 13 December 2012, retrieved 19 June 2010

Further reading
Gillespie, W. M. (1850). A Manual of The Principles and Practice of Road-Making: comprising
the location, construction, and improvement of roads (common, macadam, paved, plank, etc.)
and rail-roads (https://archive.org/stream/manualofprincipl00gillrich#page/n3/mode/2up)
(3rd ed.). New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. Retrieved 23 June 2010.

External links
McAdam's publications as available at Internet Archive (https://archive.org/search.php?query=c
reator%3A%22John+Loudon+McAdam%22)

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