The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-05-08
COUNTY ROADS.
An Important and Interesting Bulletin by
Prof. Taylor Of the University.

frOI. laylOf OI Tie University.
The last university bulletin was &
very interesting and important paper
on county roads, by Prof. T. U. Tay
Tor of the university. 1t is one of the
clearest, most practical and common
sense" articles on the subject that
has come to the notice of THE STATES
MAN, and it should be sent to every
county official in the State.
Of the probable cost of roads Prof
Tayler says:
The writer has noticed recently
many estimates of the probable cost
OF macadamized road per mile. This
is usually placed at about $4,000
Where there is no grading needed and
the stone is near the road, $4,000
would be ample to macadamize road
one mile long with macadam six inches
deep and sixteen feet wide. A mac.
adam road over which the writer had
control, and the construction of which
he superintendent, in the State of Vir-
ginia, cost, exclusive of grading, $3.50
per mile. Here the depth of metal
(broken stone) was ten inches, the
width sixteen feet; the average haul
of the stone to crusher was not over
one furlong, and the labor as cheap as
can be got in Texas. This road was
partially built by the company and the
remainder let out to contractors at
$1.45 per cubic yard of metal. In our
black land district there can be found
plenty of material, but the question to
solve is how to get it to the place where
it is wanted.
A prominent official of one of our
black land counties (named in a fer
mer portion of this article) writes me
as follows: eve have not one foot
of building stone or yard of gravel in
the county. l have figured closely
and fad it impossible for us to get
material and build good roads for less
than $4,000 per mile; and where the
land is black waxy it will cost more
than that. With the present taxable
wealth of our county and the present
rate of road tax allowed by the con
stitution Us cents on the $100), oul
county would be limited to less than
800, 00U in bonds. With the tax al
its maximum allowable rate, we could
build only about twenty miles Of
road"
Gov. Hill of New York in his recent
mes sage to the legislature recon-.
mends that the roads of that State be
classed and macadamized. The En-.
cheering News, in it's issue OF January
IL, 1890, says: GAS Gov. Hill suggests
that these State roads be thoroughly
well built macadamized roads, the
amount of expenditure is necessarily
great. If the Telford pavement be
adopted, such as is now used about
Plainfeld, Orange and other parts OF
New Jersey that are interested in con-
structing first class modern roads, the
cost would range from $4,000 to 900
per mile. The macadamized roads OF
the same State, four to six inches
thick, are cheaper, but do not last
quite so long, and cost more Tor main
tenance; they range in prices from
$4,000 for large contracts, to $4,000 per
mile. The very excellent macadamized
streets in Plainield, N. j., cost only
about $4,000 per mile, and it is said the
repairs on forty miles OF these streets,
or roads, last year amounted to only
$1,000. These streets, or roads, in the
township of Plainfield, are 16 feet
wide, and they are built under the di
rect supervision of the supervisor,
and not by contract. The stone used
cost about 81 or $1.25 per ton, and
the usual thickness is only four
inches. The sixteen-feet wide Tel
ford roads of Union county, New Jer-
sey, have twelve inches of stone upon
them and the cost is about SIS 600 per
mile" II is hardly probable that
roads can be built here in Texas
cheaper than they can in Virginia,
where the stone is near the road. A
letter from the county engineer of
Plainfield, New Jersey, to the writer,
says: "The stone for our county inn
provement has to be hauled from two
to five miles. Some is brought from
distance by rail and hauled from the
depot, but the majority oft is brought
about three miles"