rolling along over the long straight stretches often flanked by i feeling scenery or rounding graceful curves the traveler seldom thinks of the engineering skill and construction technique utilized in the biz ribbons of concrete and steel that make possible the miracle of modern translation steel dramatically flowing from the open hearth furnace for processing into many forms and products today as an indispensable material in the can spend the modern highway oddly enough a great portion of the steel used remains for every embedded in the paving but it serves to give the roadway permanent strength and durable it but some of it however is visible as in overpasses and bridges in the construction of highways steel serves also in the complicated and amazing road building a quick but characteristic of the work to be done the toughest jobs are accomplished in stride and roads can be cut through to provide the most advantageous routes in the old horse and buggy days the course of a robust brinkley dictated by the location of a bridge this was the era of the covered bridge picture s then substantial but today a symbol of the past as the automobile brought higher speeds of travel and more traffic the type of bridge was gradually changed to meet the new conditions through the years of steel rivers are now spanned without deviation from the prescribed course modern bridges designed with an eye to beauty as well as strengths are a part of the highway early concrete roads were simply cast slabs without inner reinforcing but the traffic soon became too heavy for this type of road bed the lesson was learned that highways like other types of construction can only be as strong as the materials used in building them steel has the needed strength and adaptability and the steel industry has developed through research many different products for conventional form for molten steel lot of the open hot furnace the anger is repeated in assaulting that furnace to a temperature of about twenty two hundred degrees fahrenheit but it is ready for rolling in what is known as a blooming ma at this temperature the form of the ingot is readily changed by passing it through the roles which exert pressure on each time the anger passes through the male the roles are brought closer together thus each pass reduces the cross section and increases the length proportionately the millers equipped with manipulators which turn the ingots so it can be rolled on all sides thereby improving the internal structure of the steel the mill operators have complete control of the operation of the road and the movement of the engine through the mil after the steel as been passed back and forth between the roll a number of times the rough form of the eventual cross section begins to be apparent the steelers at a temperature high enough to permit rolling and subsequent mills without reheating after being rolled down in the blooming male and before it is passed on to the next operation the ends are cut back to some met these lengths is passed back and forth through the various roles dams which constitute these mills first through the roughing rolls then through the finishing as in the blooming mail each past results in a reduction in size and increase in l rolling process has been completed from anger to finished product in about ten minutes many types of rolling mills differing in size or similar in character are used to turn out a wide range of steel products for highways but the demands of the road builder for these products are as varied as the terrain upon which he must construct your highways these long steel sections are driven down through the softer tell a rest on the bedrock many feet below other steel members including the reinforcing steel can then be joined by welding or otherwise to the top into the piling and the whole thing will be as solid as if the roadway were built right on the bedrock itself another form of piling steel sheet piling is manufactured in a variety of cross sections and plays an important part in the construction of a modern highway this vertical material is also used for permanent retaining walls and to give extra strength to structures such as bridge abutment when it is necessary to construct a concrete barrier on the bottom of a river a temporary co wide we find an example of what the steel industry means to this great business of highway construction actually construction of a highway bridge starts almost as soon as the site  to because there's a tremendous amount of design and engineering work to be done to power if a largely determines the type of bridge to be used every piece of steel in it is cut to strict specifications that the steel companies fabricating works and assembled into sections of convenient size for transportation the subassemblies are scheduled to arrive at the bridge site in the order in which they are needed here as elsewhere stale serves not only to support the roadway but to hold together and reinforce the concrete pavement everybody knows about the famous steel structures like the golden gate bridge the george washington bridge and the chest page but here people think of them as what they really are highways over water not just connecting links between two highways but part and parcel of the highway itself from the standpoint of actual mileage of course most of the highway is built on the ground and even in the first steps of construction steel and is the road building picture road building today is no pick and shovel operation  yesterday the roads more or less follow the contour of the land today the shape of the land must be made to conform and for the highway bridges must be cut away and gullies filled in steadily over the years the jobs have become bigger and tougher and to meet the challenge heavier and more specialized steel road building machines have been developed one such machine is the drag scraper it scoops that there is off the high spots carries it along and  the hollows in one operation power shovels as many standard and special types dig away the earth and expose rock formations there is obstructions were spotted previously by the surveyors that now must be removed to bring the highway to the established grade with modern equipment it's more economical to blast them out of the way than to go around them airpower drilling machinery bores into the rock making holes for dynamite the drill itself is hollow and the blast of air force down through the center blows the rock dust out of the hole it's a faster operation than the old way and gives a truer hole for the explosive after the required number of holes have been after the dust settles men and machines dig in again scooping up the broken rock in this type of work equipment really takes a beating wire rope a few hundred pounds of it installed on a thirty ton shovel is the steel member and which the whole mechanism depends wairarapa strong and resilient must withstand the highly abrasive act maspero of the construction project and must not fail when subjected to repeated flexing over small ships and drums as manufactured today by bethlehem steel company wire rope gives outstanding service under hard usage modern highway design does not tolerate great crossings in most cases where a railroad or another highway is encountered either underpass or overpass is provided in bridge construction concrete piers i reinforced with steel bars they protesting ends are left long enough to be bent over and tied into the bridge either pairs or pavement a firm bond between steel and concrete is assured by the deformations rolled into the bars bethlehem steel company maintains reinforcing bar fabricating shops in all major highway construction areas road building materials are stocked at these locations as needed reinforcing buyers are cut to length and bend to shape in any massive concrete a circle lines of stress develop and the buyers are ca bent to follow these lines so that they will bear their full share of the load on a completed structure used in all kinds of concrete work reinforcing buyers are one of the most important steel products in modern highway construction this have a structural member built up in one of the company's fabricating works is intended for use in an overpass getting a member of this size to the place where it's going to be used is sometimes diff often the building site is many miles from the railhead and this means trucking over unimproved highways are temporary rough graded work roads specialized machinery does the job with seeming ease cranes also had to be moved to the site ahead of time as with any construction there is much planning and preparation before the final sections can be added  all in the day's work to the modern road building  road building is a continuous operation by workers going on elsewhere the right away is steadily being cleared of all obstacles and made ready for the paving crew in preparation for the concrete steel paving forms i stated in place along each side of the lane to be paved besides providing a retaining wall for the concrete reforms are used as tracks on which some of the paving machinery moves these bombs are made upon the subway which previously had been pre gauges the exact depth needed for the concrete and the big job of preparation is that now comes the painting and here to steal steps in there are several important items that won't be visible on the highway is finished because they will be embedded within the concrete pavement there is a simple but effective steel device that demonstrates how steel industry research has the road building problem this device the key way is one of many ste specialties that not only conserve time and labor but more important add to the strength and durable today of the pavement the key way and a companion piece the center joint tie hobbled quickly and easily assembled on the j poured in a continuous operation and means must be provided to control the cracking that may occur because of stresses induced by heavy loads and temperature changes otherwise there's no telling where the cracks will appear that is why there are joints