Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-03-05
Concerning the Cost, Advantages, etc.
fthe Same.

The following, compiled from information
furnished by Col. w. L. Curry, Auditor of
Union county, Ohio, for eight years, may
prove interesting and useful to the citizens
of Henry county and the readers of this paper
generally:
Union county has now constructed about
100 improved roads, all but two or three of
them being 1.-TWO mile assessment pixies"
with an aggregate mileage of about 600
miles without single toll-gate.
All of the main roads and many of the
cross roads are now graveled or macadam-
ized. Commissioners and engineers have
learned by many years experience that the
first requisite is to make good grade and
good drainage, and this part of the work is
very closely guarded by the superintendent
and engineer.
Many of the roads are constructed on the
"double track plan," that is, one track of
gravel and one of dirt, the dirt road being
used during the spring, summer and fall, and
the gravel track in the winter, thus saving
the gravel track, which will last many years
longer. AS there is but little difference in
the cost of constructing the single and double
track roads, the matter is always left to the
choice of the petitioners, some preferring
single and others double track.
The expense of constructing gravel roads
depends largely upon the distance the gravel
has to be hauled.
Roads now cost from $1,000 to $500 per
mile exclusive of bridging, all governed by
the distance gravel has to be hauled. Gravel
in the pit costs an average of SIPS per
mile.
In Counties that have no gravel, but have
limestone, roads can be constructed from
crushed stone at a cost but little above that
| of gravel. Some contractors have used from
choice such stone intead of the gravel they
had contracted to use. On the usual gravel
| roads we put seven cubic yards of gravel to
| the rod, which makes a material difference
! In the expense of hauling and spreading.
Cross roads not much travelled need less. A
number one rotary crusher with ten horse
power engine will crush sixty cubic yards of
| ordinary limestone per day, and such stone
will cost, loaded on wagon, about eighty
cents per cubic yard, counting everything.
The pixies in this county have cost more
| than 81, ,000, 900, but the landowners have
been repaid with large interest by the in
crease in the value of real estate. For one
million dollars expended for pixies the value
of roal estate has been increased two millions.
| Lands sells for about 40 or so per cent more
after the road improvements than before,
and many citizens of old and richer counties
are coming in and purchasing farms in this
county, their reason being that they wish to
| OWL lduu III COuuby Dl0SS6u WIFI ROOu
roads. New dwellings are built barns are
painted and the whole county is improved
and beautified wherever there are good
pixies.
When the gravel road question was first
agitated in this county the enterprise was
bitterly opposed by some of the heaviest tax.
payers and best citizens, as they argued (and
honestly, too,) that first, there was no gray
ell in the county to build the roads; and Sec
| hos NJ riolf xuoI1l1 hon nj
the county to build them;" but experience
has demonstrated the fallacy of their argu
ment. Those who were the strongest op-
ponents of gravel roads in the beginning are
| now their most enthusiastic advocates
Horse flesh and breakage of vehicles are
saved, and many other obvious advantages
have accrued. Our pixies are paid for and
the county is much richer to-day than when
we began to build them and we have an
abundance of material left.
Years ago the citizens of Marysville shipped
gravel fifteen miles by railroad from
another county to put on our streets and
since that time they have learned that the
whole town is underlaid with gravel superior
to that shipped. Other counties may find an
abundance of material where not now ex-
pected.
The citizens are we'll satisfied with the mon
ey they have expended for road improve
ments. The farmers are well paid by the in
crease in the value of their lands, and can
market their grain and produce as easily and
readily in December and January as they
could under the old system of mud roads in
August and September, thus having the op-
portunity of taking advantage of the best
markets all the year. Merchants are we'll
pleased that they have at their counters in
the winter season, as we'll as in the summer,
customers who live fifteen and twenty miles
away.
We pay our contractors in six per cent
bonds, that are anxiously sought and sell as
readily as United States bonds.