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CONSTRUCTION SOURCES OF GRAVEL, MINTZER 151 
for those sites nearest to the construction. The tax map assisted with determining the 
property owners to be contacted for option possibilities. Finally, with all available in- 
formation in hand, the report was prepared, recommending the best site, showing the 
areal extent, quantity and quality of available materials. The contractor receiving the 
report was then able to make the necessary arrangements for the mineral option to the 
property and to haul the required materials to the construction site. 
In this manner gravel sources were located within a reasonable proximity of the 
site of construction, and a great deal of time and money were saved in the construction 
cost. The time and money saved by the contractor in this case more than paid for the 
cost of the engineering investigation by means of airphotos. 
Other parts of the investigation. 
The terrain of the entire route was investigated to determine the sources suitable 
for borrow materials. For this study the Ohio Department of Highways Soil Profile was 
correlated with the aerial photographic study. The soil types were delineated along the 
proposed highway center line. The most suitable borrow material sources were identified 
by topographic position relative to the surrounding terrain. The soils located in the high 
or elevated ridge-like topographic positions were found most suitable for borrow. 
Bavaria West Germany. 
Another good source of gravel is found in ground moraines or outwash plains. 
Between Munich and Augsburg on the Southern face of the Danube valley there is a 
tilting glaciated plain, the Mindelheim part of the Bavarian plain. This region is used 
to illustrate the airphoto method of determining gravel sites in glaciated plain, one 
derived from Alpine glaciation. The ground reconnaissance was made on foot during 
August 1958, to inspect the gravel quarry and determine its suitability. 
Geology. 
The glaciation originated in the Schwabische Alb. Various selected finger valleys 
were formed at the foot of the Alb. Here one finds a green plateau covered with juniper 
and marked by short deep-cut valleys which form the Northern face of the Alb. Specifi- 
cally, the topography of the Mindelheim plain is dotted with lakes, the largest of which 
is Lake Constance. The slightly undulating farmland is dotted with many small wood 
plots. 
During the glacial period the glaciers crept out of the Imm River valley (main glacier 
220 miles long, 5000 feet thick in its upper part) over the Seefelder Sattel and the 
Achenpass into the foothills of the Alps and deposited the debris being carried along. 
Glacial debris was piled as high as 1650 feet at Krausberg near Mittenwald. The Mindel 
Drift sheet in the region studied, as described by Penck and Bruckner [14] was mainly 
a glacial outwash plain of sands and gravels. Vast plains areas stretch from Augsburg 
to Munich in the region South of the Danube. Weathered granite and limestone pebbles 
washed down from the Alps are found in the heterogenous mass for depths up to 20 feet. 
The gravel has a deeply iron-stained clay cover that in places is used commercially. The 
gravel deposit of these plains has a general thickness of 100 to 150 feet. 
The Mindel drift is the most extensive of the glacial formations along much of the 
northern border of the Alps, but on the eastern and southern borders its limits are nearly 
coincident with those of the Riss drift, while at the Western end of the Alps the Mindel 
drift appears to have fallen short a littie of reaching the limits attained by the Riss 
drift. Like the Gunz drift, the Mindel, connects with extensive deposits of glacial outwash, 
known as the younger Deckenschotter drift, which is found in broad shallow valleys that 
had been excavated to a level slightly below the base of deposits of the older Deckenschot-