The Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-11-05, Page 419A GSS/W.ednesd.ay, Nov. 5, 1986
Roads
Early roads were often dis�sirowslyy ninddy'" causing nu serous breakdowns.
Road -building
equipment advanced
he first equipment to be used
T
for road building in pioneer
days was an axe and logging
chain. These were the simple tools
used by the settlers and the soldiers
in building the blazed trails and the
corduroy roads. Later, to turn these
blazed trails into graded roads,
plows, picks and shovels and
primitive scrapers, were used. The
basic source of power was then
supplied by men's muscles.'This was
lightened to some degree by the use
of animal power. '
When the demand for an all '
weather road arose, gravel or
broken stone was used for surfacing
material. The stone was broken by
hand, using a sledge hammer, or a
rectangular or ball -shaped knapping
hammer.
Only a very small mileage of
surfaced road could be built by these
methods but, with theintroduction of
steam power, production was
immeasurably increased. Instead of
the small quantity of broken stone
•provided by hand labour, steam
operated crushing plants supplied
the road metal in large quantities at
low cost. Steam shovels were built to
dig the earth, which was then hauled
by horse-drawn dump carts and
wagons, or .by steam locomotives on
narrow gauge tracks with dump
cars.
Steam -powered equipment made it
possible to make a start in building a
highway system, which was
necessitated by the introduction of
the automobile. However, it was
heavy, cumbersome and a fire
hazard. It was replaced by gas
driven equipment, which has the
advantage of lower fuel cost, less
fire risk, lessheat, less space,
quicker starting and stopping and
the elimination of both boiler and
fireman. The emancipation of the •
work animal began when the horse
and wagon were replaced by trucks.
with gas engines.
The next big improvement in Toad
building machinery was the
replacing of wheels with tracks and
the introduction of the crawler
tractor.
These tracks were used on all
types of equipment including steam
and gas shovels, dump trucks, •
tractors, graders, etc. The tracks
enabled earth moving machinery
'equipped with tracks, to operate
where wheeled equipment would bog
down or where slopes were too steep.
During many succeeding years, one
of the main uses of the crawler
tractor was pulling other equipment.
Then, the next major advance in
earth moving equipment was the
stage when self-propelled graders
and other self-propelled equipment
were put on the market. One of the
most recent innovations was the use
of diesel power. This gave additional
fuel economy with more power,
permitting equipment to get bigger
and bigger. With the use of huge,
low-pressure tires on scrapers and
other equipment, greater mobility
and speed were obtained, with
greater capacity for hauling earth.
These developments represent
progressive stages in the
improvement of earth moving •
equipment to make possible the •
building of highway systems capable
of coping with the needs of modern
transportation.
That the result of this
mechanization process for moving
earth was extraordinarily successful
is proven by the fact that the cost of
moving a yard of earth during the 40
years between 1920 and 1960 varied
very little and during all this period
remained at about 40 cents. The job
of moving a yard of rock followed a
similar pattern although it was not
as uniform as the price of moving
earth. During the corresponding
forty year period; Continued it iS n Page significanto
When Tiger Dunlop and John Galt founded
Goderich back in 1827, they probably never dreamed
of the prosperity Champion Road Graders would bring
to Goderich. After 100 years of building the best road
graders in the world, Champion has served its
customers and the community according to the highest
The Park House has stood at its current location for
over 150 years, making it the oldest building in Huron
County. We have built our business by providing good
food and good service at reasonable prices in a comfor-
table and relaxing environment overlooking beautiful
Lake Huron.
Congratulations to all the management
and staff at Champion Road. Graders for
the success over the last 100 years.. We
wish you another 100 years of prosperity!
The Park House Staff,
Lorraine, Judith, Jody, Don, Donna,
Stephanie, Deb, Pat, Karen, Joe,
Shelley, Dan, Jeff, John, Sue, Sharon
and Rick.
till
the
Park
Howe
0
ARM
168 West Street,
Goderich, Ontario
(519) 524-4431
6