At first it was proposed to repair the old road between Balaklava and Kadikoi, to carry the whole traffic between those points, and also to repair the old French road between Ivadikoi and the stationary engine, passing up the Vinoy ravine for an up road, while the car-track round the east side of rrenchman's-hill was to be improved and used as a down road between those two latter points. Mr. Doyne reported on the whole line, and, after careful examination, found that it would require much less labour to make a new and good road between Balaklava and Kadikoi by a different route, than to attempt to repair the old one while the traffic was passing over it. Accordingly, a main drain was cut down the centre of the valley, running into the head of Balaklava harbour, to intercept all water flowing from the east of it, and free the road and railway drains rapidly from the rain-water.
The road was made parallel to the railway, the material over which it passes being deep, spongy, vegetable soil, easily drained in its natural state, but very retentive if worked up under wet; drains four feet deep were cut at forty feet apai't, and the surface between rounded to a foot higher at the centre. Cross-drains were cut at every forty-four yards, connecting-main drains, and the large stone pitching, t^penty-eight feet wide, was filled in with smaller stones, a:id afterwards macadamized. Before laying on the pitching, the whole traffic of the camp was turned over the formed surface for five days to beat it down, and to consolidate it, a strong force of navvies being employed in the morning and evening to keep up the proper form.
This course proved perfectly successful — the surface was quite smooth when the metalling was laid on, and consequently the rain now runs freely off without penetrating the soil. On this section there has been laid down about 13,000 tons of hard limestone pitching and metalling on a length of one mile. From Kadikoi to the stationary engine the old road up the Vinoy ravine was so steep (1 in 12), and thus liable to be washed away, and the ground over which the down line was prepared to pass was so bad (in some places 1 in 7), that Mr. Doyne determined to abandon both, and to make a new road round tbe eastern base of Frenchman's-hill, nearly parallel with the railway, and Sir Richard Airey gave his assent to the change.
Here for a considerable distance the road is terraced out in the hill-side, formed of hard carboniferous limestone rock, and a clear metalled roadway is obtained from twenty to twenty-five feet wide throughout. In the next section, to Mrs. Seacole's hut, the old French road is widened, deep drains have been cut, the centre raised, and a deep coat of limestone metalling laid on. In the next section, up to the Col, the ground again slopes very rapidly, and the road is terraced out for a mile, partly in rock, sandstone, and clay, and is then formed and metalled as before. From Balaklava to the Col the chief difficulty to be contended with in maintaining a road is the numerous bodies of water which come down the hill-sides.
To protect the road against this, ti-enches have been cut on the upper side, zigzagging according to the line of the ground, so as to intercept the water and convey it into large culverts constructed mider the road at every dip in the undulation of the hill. Thus no water can get upon the road except that which actually falls upon its surface, and that small quantity, from the rounded form, is rapidly carried away into the side di-ains. To relieve a road in every way fi-om the destructive action of water, both by sub and sm-face drainage, is the first principle of road-making; without attention to this, any amount of laboiuwill prove fruitless. From Balaldava to the Col, about three miles and a half, the works throughout are of a very heavy character, and the provisions for drainage are upon an extensive scale; besides about ten miles of open ditching, there are between 150 and 200 culverts constructed; from the great want of materials these are formed in every variety of way — many with Arraj^ Works Corps' water barrels, some with Commissariat pork casks, others with Eoyal Engineers' fascines and gi-een platfonn timber.