Cow Tunnels Under Route 70

wis bang

Explorer
Jun 24, 2004
235
2
East Windsor
Guy:

Technically speaking, to pave is to place any type of improved surface on a roadway, not just asphalt, so the reporter used the correct term. In addition, the state constructed the highway (yes, originally Route S-40) using concrete, of which cement is a major component. Concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, stone, and water; the sand and stone serve as both binding agents and filler to reduce the amount of cement needed to produce the mix.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

Take it one step farther, Asphalt paving is often called bitiminous concrete...
 
wis bang:

You are absolutely correct! As I indicated above, while we commonly refer to concrete as a mixture of cement, sand, stone, and water, in reality the noun concrete is a solid mass created through the coalesence or cohesion of separate particles, whether it be the standard mix using cement, or a mixture of asphaltum, stone, and sand or oil and stone, etc.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
26,008
8,774
I have never used concrete in my vocabulary for some reason, I have always said cement. I never knew or thought there was a difference. It is something I never thought about.

Guy
 

RMICKLE

Scout
Oct 3, 2005
86
0
Carson City, NV
Hello,

My friends and I in the 70’s & early 80’s used the one that was extended to get to the other side of the highway. There was a 12 inch or so water main in the tunnel that we walked on sometimes so our feet wouldn’t get wet. I believe it was removed when they extended the tunnel.

My father told me onetime that the Medford – Haddonfield Railroad (before the highway) had a way for the cows to get to the meadow. I gauss they left some of the bracing off their trestle, I never asked my father for details. The farm went from Union Street in Medford to Sharp’s Run on the north side of the highway.

Roy
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
26,008
8,774
Roy,

That main is still there. Well, part of it is.

main.php



Thanks for the info.


Guy
 
Behr, I believe it refers to stone, or oil and stone chips. I can't be sure because it's kind of an archaic term. I don't think they called it that here in NJ.

BigRedEye (and Behr):

I concur with your definition of McAdam. Great Britain citizen John Loudon McAdam derived his special pavement technique in 1816 after observing the great difficulty that wagons and carriages encountered when running on a road surface composed of rounded stone. He developed a paving technique that required hand chipped stones not exceeding 6 ounces in weight and passable through a 2" metal ring. He constructed his new road surface in stratums with the first layer shoveled on to a depth of six inches. He compacted this initial stratum with iron rollers. After applying the weight necessary to compress the broken stone together, McAdam added a second stratum with compaction, followed by a third, making a road surface having a uniform surface of seven to ten inches deep. The broken angular stone chips compacted into a hard surface with no need for any type of binding agent.

The term Tarmac, usually associated with airports, originally comes from an application of asphaltum to an existing McAdam roadway.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
 

ebsi2001

Explorer
May 2, 2006
301
0
southern NJ
Are you certain they're for animals? They look like box culverts, built to allow streams to flow under the road. You can find structures just like that on a lot of roads including urban areas.

Back in the first half of the last century, New Jersey was well known for its large, semi--automated, dairy farms. The cows (quite often Golden Gurnseys) were milked by a state--of--the--art, partially automated, milking machines, which were part of a "turnstyle" milking system. The cows, themselves, returned to the barns to be milked, when they felt they needed to be milked. It is not hard to imagine that a New Jersey dairymen with very large farms may have the "clout" to have such tunnels built, or obtain permission to have them built. From my research, I know of two, large dairy farms that were located in the Burlington area...

Ebsi
 
Cow Tunnels

There is a "Cow Tunnel under the NJ Turnpike, near Crosswicks. It was built for the Hendrickson Farm. The farm is located on the Yardville-Crosswicks Road, next to the Turnpike, just as you mentioned, he had grazing land on both sides of the turnpike. The farm is no longer an active Dairy Farm and I have ridden my motorcycle through the tunnel.
 
State of the art milking Parlors

The Milking Parlors you mention were developed owned by the Walker-Gordon Farms. The name of the machine was the "Rotolactor", it was at the Walker-Gorden Farm in Plainsboro, NJ, they had other farms one of thier biggest was between Columbus and Jobstown, NJ. I saw the "Rotolactor" in action, it was quite interesting. "Elsie The Cow" the logo of the Borden Milk Company is burried at he Plainsboro, NJ farm, her real name was "You'll do Lobelia,"
 

Sue Gremlin

Piney
Sep 13, 2005
1,291
248
61
Vicksburg, Michigan
That is a cool little bit of trivia.

It is, indeed. My colleague worked there as a teenager. The farm was right here where I work. Shame it's all condo farms now. Another bit of trivia: You'll Do Lobelia was killed in an accident on route 1 in 1942, at the ripe old age of 9. (I cannot find a reference for that, this is according to locals in the know). A headstone is located next to a small gazebo near a pond on what remains of the Walker-Gordon farm, But the actual grave was lost to housing development.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,144
Coastal NJ
There are similar tunnels on I-87 in upstate NY designed for wildlife, an attempt to lower animal/vehicle accidents. Fences are on either side of the tunnel entrance in an attempt to funnel the critters to the funnels. The are of dubious value.

"The Wildlife Conservation Society conducted and published a very useful study on the lack of use by local wildlife of animal-migration tunnels under the Adirondack Northway (I-87). The study showed quite clearly that animals avoided the tunnels, while all-terrain vehicle riders illegally trespassed through them regularly."

In Canada's Banff Park, built a couple of bridges and 22 tunnels to try and accomplish the same thing. It also did not work very well.

srepvegetated_0verpass.jpg


I guess they need to hire someone to herd the critters thru :rofl:
 

GermanG

Piney
Apr 2, 2005
1,151
501
Little Egg Harbor
I remember a similar tunnel under Rt. 1 in New Brunswick, connecting college owned farms on Cook College Campus. While attending school there, we used to use the tunnel all the time for hiking and exploring. I never gave any thought at the time to what they were used for.
 
Top