Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1850-07-13
/. Plank Roads.

,and planters generally along the foute, as
3welI as by the merchants and planters at
FITS eastern terminus, i'll the project for
Fbnilding a substantial Punk Reid from
this city to CIinton, induces IT'S to submit
TO DIR readers some estimates and observa-
Etlons upon the subject made by A. A. DEx-
(rBR, Esn, Civil Engineer, in his report Of
ii preliminary survey made by him for a
sIYaak Raul between Montgomery and
|Wetnmpka to T~alladega, in Alabama.
The Report is most ably written aud
|enbolics u vast amount of useful informa-
Zion. sIhe PUNK Raul Qucstion is taken
Itp ut great length, aud discussed with
fco,dor and force. We deeply regret TINT
I'VE have not room for longer extracts from
the pamphlet than we now give. Necessity
lis to be brief.
According to Mr.. DEXTER PUNK Roads
be built very cheap in Alabama. lie
'estirnates5h seventy-six miles of Plank.
'Road averaging ten feet in widtl) be-
Talladega and Wetunpka, running
a country where great natural,
obstacles exist, can be laid for $l7G,327,
|GJ, or an average, per mile, of ~, 2S9, 81 y
This estimate includes everything, cost of
|plank#, ~tri"gerse grading, ditching, cnl-I
vcrts, bridges, &c.
II this can be done in the interior of
Alabama, where, i'll many places on the
the road is rough and uneven, and,
the expense for bridges and culverts!
win he great, how much cheaper the same
work could be performed on the level,
beautifully graded, and entirely nnobstrhct-l
cd route, between this city and Clinton :?
II seems to us that $1,000 per nile, at the
very outside, would be more than sulii-l
eient TO build the road.
From the slime report W.T. learn that
on the ordinary New York Plank Roads,
" two horses can draw two To Is with ease
upon them" aud that "on ;Slcrel Plank
Road they draw four or five tons" OnI
the Rome and Utica On. W Plank
Road, the common load for two horses,
is three tons"
Here is Mr.. DExTsR's estimate of tlle'
weight Of the load which could be conf
veycd by four horses over the proposed;
Wetumpka road, AND the speed whichI
would be ensured,
We think, therefore, that we are perl
safe III assuming / ton to the horse;
as tlld nett load which can be conveyed on
our road, with grades Of / in 81. 1T tlleE
ate Of 80 miles a day. This would bel
| tons for a four horse team, or $500 lbs.,g
or II 92-1O0, say Is, bales Of cotton of
500 lbs. each. Allowing rs per dny, |
Is considered n very full estimate ins
This pnrt of the country, for the service of;
' f'ii il'lSC bI'il, tiltI tl1t t,JoD IDS. h
would be conveyed 80 miles for So, plrsE
The tolls.
eMr. DEXTER, after an elaborate andl
careful calculation, gives MS his belief that1
he Wetumpka road will yield" fully a
per ccnt. upon investment, after
lcdllcting d sufficient amount to keep the !
road III repair. We have no doubt that the I
calculation would more than holdi
rood III regard to the proposed road betweenl
Baton Rouge and Clinton, for the cost off
building would be less, the road is so level
hat fewer repairs would be necessary, and
ever bridges to keep in order.
MIR. ID. elucidates the conparatives
of Rail Roads and Plank
most admirably, in the followings
paragraphs. The difference in favor of the[
after a exclusively agricultural country
ike ours, will at once be seen and apme-f
.at ~ es /
The economy Of Plank Roads and Rail.E
and the principles which governtheirA
tsc are so entirely different, that it hasI
lot been usual to institute comparisons
,etween them. The one is an open pub.
bic highway, available to every kind of
conveyance, i'll which the community att
arge hold the capital invested in the mol
i've power; the other is q great machine,
the parts of which, including the MOI
i've power, are under the control Of an in-s
dependent private organization. Whiles
N many routes of internal communication
he first cost ofa Railroad and the machin-s
Try of transportation might involve am
greatly exceeding the remuneratings
capabilities of the traffic and travel, WEI
tiud in the same cases that the mores
moderate expense of a Plank Road WOULD
DC sustained by the business of the coun-E
ry. While no one is more sensible THANH
myself of the advantages which have res
to the people Of the United StutesS
rom the general introduction Of Railroads,
yet | am satisfied that an economic r%es1lt9
If as great value might have been attaineds
n many cases in the southern country bys
he construction of Plank Roads, at a say
wing of many millions i'll original outlay. 1
The great feature in the Plank Roads
WHICH distinguishes it. from thes
Railroad, is that the one avails itself of
Independent ~pre-existing animal, power1
or the purposes of transportation, whilea
he other substitutes mechanical agency
or the same purpose. Now were it az
question in notwithstanding like Eng-S
and or Massachusetts, as to the relatives
advantages of the two modes of transports
allnn. Ii Mnnll undnuLtndlu he dacidnd In