In 1847, the General Assembly authorized the County Court to borrow $50,000 to macadamize all of Gravois Road. However, the general practice in road building until the Civil War period continued to be the "plank" type of roadway. In some ways this type of road was superior to the newly developed macadam surface, which was of rather soft construction (the steamroller had not yet been invented), the hope being that travel would tramp the gravel and tar to a hard surface. However, the carriage wheels would cut deep ruts into the roadway, and there soon appeared to one side of the right-of-way what in those days was referred to as a "summer road", a dirt road which was passable only in the summer months.