The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-08-09
TURNPlKES.
An Interesting and Common Sense
Letter by a Farmer.
Something for the Serious and
Prompt Consideration of
the Able County Com
missioners.


suggestions, is compended to the county
commissioners:
FIsKvILLE, July 80, 1888.
To the Editor of the Statesman:
Apropos of the agitation of the subject
of turnpike roads for Travis county, l
have Just seen the text of law passed by
the last legislature of Kentucky which
should furnish us home valuable ideas.
Briefly, the object of the law is to change
from the old system of turnpikes, owned
by individuals or companies and upon
which tolls are collected, and to provide
for their purchase and maintenance by
the county, as well as to build Others as
they are needed, making them free to all
We should begin at the point to which
they have progressed-tha is, to make
them common property and free to all.
The work can only be done here by the
people in their organized capacity as
citizens of the county wide the failure
OF the two toll bridges built in the county
to pay profit to their owners-one over
the Colorado, the other over Big
Walnut, on the Georgetown road.
This Kentucky law empowers the county
commissioners to issue and sell bonds,
not to exceed $4,000 for any one year, to
be applied to the purchase of old pixies,
and, after all existing ones are bought, to
build new ones.
1t limits the commissioners s to the pay
ment of lot over 81 400 per mile for any
rond, and specifies that this maximum
price can be paid only for road graded
2215 feet wide II feet of which is maca-
damized II inches thick in center, taper
ing to 8 inches at the edges, with best
quality of limestone, two-thirds of this
layer of stone broken to inches in size,
the upper third broken to 2 inches in
size" Roads of lesser proportions to be
paid for at proportionate rates.
From my own recollection I can state
that for roads that are main arteries, and
upon which there is a heavy travel, the
stone was often put on both wider and
thicker, viz, the Covington and Lexing-
ton pike, i'll Kentucky, for the first ten
miles ont from Covingtop, is eighteen
feet wide.
The macadamized road bed on much
frequented road should be wide Ell ough
for teams to pass each other without run
ming off the stone. This is especially
Any system should be modified to suit
the pecularities of our case, viz it being
fact that the less the wear and tear on
road the longer it will last, and a dirt
road, at its best, being the NEST pleasant
and desirable road on earth to ride over,
we could rely on the well graded dirt
tracks on each side of a turnpike to reduce
the travel from the latter in all suitable
weather; hence it would appear profitable,
before laying down the metal, to grade
the roadway wide enough for track
on each side of the stone, thus,
if the stone was put on fourteen
feet and ten feet allowed
for each side track-the grading should
be done smooth and evenly thirty-four
feet wide. Then a statute would be de-
sirable defining the rights of travellers on
the highways, requiring all to pass to the
right. Thus, al parties going to OF
coming from town would be entitled to
take and keep the right hand dirt track,
and, in bad weather, when travel was con-
fined to the stone track, each one would
know their own and others rights, and
collisions and Misunderstanding would
be reduced to the minimum, and where
they did occur the responsibility could be
placed where it properly belonged. We
generally have one. half the year when the
dirt road would have the choice over the
stone, hence the Importance of the wide
and good grade. 1t cannot be argued
from this fact that we do not need the
turnpikes, for, like the cowboy and the
pistol, when we need the hard road 1--WE
need it mighty bad" for our soil
quickly become impossible in rainy
weather. But the most important point