A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, they are known as 'metal roads'. They may be referred to as 'dirt roads' in common speech, but that term is used more for unimproved roads with no surface material added. If well constructed and maintained, a gravel road is an all-weather road.
The gravel used consists of irregular stones mixed with a varying amount of sand, silt, and clay, which can act as a binder. A gravel road is quite different from a 'gravel drive', popular as private driveways in the United Kingdom. This uses clean gravel consisting of uniform, rounded stones and small pebbles.
Read more about Gravel Road: Logging Roads
Famous quotes containing the words gravel and/or road:
“Let the new faces play what tricks they will
In the old rooms; night can outbalance day,
Our shadows rove the garden gravel still,
The living seem more shadowy than they.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The road to wisdom?—Well, it’s plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.”
—Piet Hein (b. 1905)