Transcript roman construction - Nutley Public Schools

ROMAN PUBLIC WORKS
• Public Works: construction projects
completed by the state for the benefit of
the citizens: roads, bridges, water supply,
sewers.
• Roman engineering accomplished these
tasks
• Today we look at one of those public
works that benefited the Roman people so
much
ROMAN CONSTRUCTION
Aqueducts
Aqueducts
• Aqueduct: Man-made conduit for carrying water.
– Aqua=water; duct=to lead
– Aqueducts bring water from its source to a distribution
point.
– Most aqueducts ran underground. Bridges of stone
arches were built when a river or valley had to be
crossed. This helped keep the water flow at a
constant rate.
– Other peoples built structures like aqueducts: India,
Persia, Egypt, Middle East.
– Romans are considered the greatest of all aqueduct
builders.
Aqueducts
• History:
– During the early days of Rome the water supply came
from the River Tiber, wells, and springs.
– Rome needed an alternate water source for its growing
population.
– Over a 500 year period (312 BC-AD226), 11 aqueducts
were built to bring water to Rome from far away.
– The longest was the Anio Novus, 59 miles long.
– They served a population of over 1 million in Rome!
– Some are still in use.
Aqueducts
• Construction:
– Only a portion of Rome’s aqueducts crossed over valleys on stone
arches. The rest consisted of underground conduits made mostly
of stone and terra-cotta pipe but also of wood, leather, lead and
bronze built into the mountains.
– Vertical shafts were bored at intervals to provide ventilation and
access for workers.
Aqueducts
• Construction:
– Except where a closed pipe
was used, the channel in
which the water flowed was
3 feet wide and six feet
high. This allowed workers
to walk through its length
for inspection and
maintenance.
– Impermeable concrete was
used as a waterproofing
liner.
– Sedimentation tanks were
used to clean impurities out
of water.
Aqueducts
• Construction:
– Water flowed to the city by force of gravity.
– Once in the city, the water went through a series of
distribution tanks (cisterns) on high ground.
– From the tanks it was distributed to all parts of the city
through lead pipes.
– Water was not generally stored. The excess was
used to flush out the sewers.
– Roman aqueducts were built throughout the Roman
empire. Their arches can still be seen in places like
Greece, Italy, France, Spain, North Africa, Asia Minor.
Aqueducts
• Construction:
– 3 Types of Aqueducts:
• Masonry conduits
• Lead pipes
• Earthenware pipes
– Most common in
Rome were masonry
conduits.
Earthenware pipe unearthed in Rome
Aqueducts
• Masonry Conduits:
– The nucleus of the masonry aqueduct was the
specus or water channel.
• Specus: always had stone walls, floors and roof
whether it ran underground or above.
• The specus was always covered.
– Protection from sun
– Protection from enemy poisoning.
Aqueducts
• Covering of channel:
– Three types of covering:
• Flat slabs: very common and easily constructed.
Frequently used for above ground aqueducts
• Twin Slabs: Pointed Arch: This could be used
when terrain proved difficult to tunnel through and
height was important.
• Half-round arch: An arch in the specus allowed the
channel to be high enough for a man to enter in
order to maintain the channel.
Aqueducts
• Covers:
Half Round Arch
Flat Slab
Twin Slab
Aqueducts:
• Building an Aqueduct
– After water was found and the aqueduct was
commissioned to be built, the Senate assessed the
cost of construction.
– They decided which spring to tap and obtained a
librator (surveyor) to design a practical route.
– The librator's first task was to find a route with a
relatively even gentle slope, between the source and
the city. The route was then marked with wooden
stakes.
Aqueducts
• Building an Aqueduct
– When it was necessary to sight a straight run of
aquaduct with an existing road or path, the surveyors
might use a groma to determine the right angles.
– The liberator then calculated the elevation of each
end of the aqueduct.
– A leveling instrument, dioptra, was needed to take
the measurements. This tool had a very limited
sighting distance of about 40 yards and required the
librator to move the tool hundreds of times over the
distance of the proposed aqueduct.
Aqueducts
• Dioptra: This was
used as a surveying
device in ancient
Rome to get the
route as straight as
humanly possible.
History has proven
it worked very
effectively.
Aqueducts
• Building:
– While building an aqueduct, the men would be
housed and fed in camps that were scattered along
the route.
– Workers consisted of slaves, day laborers from small
towns and unemployed workers from Rome. As may
well be expected, slaves were found in the most
grueling jobs such as tunneling and stone breaking.
– Work on the aqueduct would begin concurrently at
various points along the route.
Aqueducts
• Building:
– Every 20 yards shafts were dug from the surface to
the route of the aqueduct.
– At every stage the librators checked the progress.
– Once a channel had been roughed out, a chorobates
would be lowered into the trench to check the slope.
Aqueducts
• Building:
– Arches were created by the
use of wooden supports
that created the shape of
the arch and were removed
after construction. Use of
Roman brick.
– The water channel was
often lined with concrete
– Water could be diverted
from an aqueduct into other
channels by creating
cisterns. The main flow
could continue while some
of the water was sent
through small openings to
supply baths or fountains
Roman Cistern
Aqueducts
• Building:
– At the terminus of the aqueduct, a huge
cistern would hold the water until it was
needed.
– aqueducts had long working histories
– They were maintained, inspected, repaired
and improved.
• The channels, as well as the traps, had to be
cleaned regularly for sediment deposits.
Aqueducts
• Facts:
– As the wars in Italy ended it was no longer necessary for the
channels to be secret. Many were marked with milestones called
cippi
– Cippi were used to locate specific points along the aqueduct
making repairs practical.
– The business of aqueduct regulation became a venture. Private
and commercial consumers paid for their water
– but it was common to steal water by connecting a pipe to the
aqueduct.
– Pipe sizes were regulated and the pipes were stamped and
recorded to ensure no larger pipes were installed later.
Aqueducts
• Facts:
– Ordinary people were
permitted to draw water
from street fountains. It was
of great importance that the
water for these street
fountains and the public
baths be protected.
Roman fountain
Aqueducts
• Aqua Claudia:
Aqueducts
• Segovia Aqueduct:
Spain
Aqueducts
• Aqua Appia
Aqueducts
• Aqua Alexandrina
Aqueducts
• Aqua Virgo: Buried
arches in Rome.
Aqueducts
• Map: