Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-12
THE VALUE OF PAVING.
Vast LOSS Entailed Upon the Cities
 Through Bad Sure cts.
Comparisons of the Cost of Trhnsporta- ton Upon Roadways That Are Im- proved and Those That Are
 Neglected.

Many people can only be induced to incur large expenses for street paving by wcll-founded prospects of gain from it. They regard it as they would an investment. Though it is less desira- ble when viewed independently of these very practical considerations, it may well be subjected to such tests of value, says Paving and Municipal En- gineering. Its paying qualities are, to some extent, capable of demonstration. Its economies may be indicated by com parisons of the cost of transportation, of relative wear and consequential loss and of maintenance of paved and un- paved streets. While there are wide differences in the resistance to traction of asphalt, wood block, brick and gran ite block road surfaces, the average where the streets of a city are paved in about equal proportion with these ma terials is less than one-third the aver age resistance of the streets of a city having only macadam, cobble-stone, earth and sand road surfaces in about equal proportion. As one horse can, therefore, draw for ten hours three times as heavy load on streets of the first class as on those of the second class, there must be an average saving of two-thirds in the cost of all trans portation by means of animals and ve- hicles where paved streets are used. In other words, the city with we'll paved streets will get at the same cost three times as much service as one with streets that are not well paved.
 The possible gain from this in dollars and cents is indicated by the statistics of freight transportation. In the year moved 701 ,344, 437 tons of freight, which was probably hauled over roads or streets at the points of loading and un- loading the cars an average distance of half mile each way. As load weigh ing ton cannot be transported mile by means of animals and vehicles for less than 40 cents, which will be used in this calculation as an average charge, the street haulage of the freight moved by the railroads of the United States in 1890 must have amounted to about $2s0, ,537, ,775.s0. It will be assumed, however, at the risk of being much too liberal in tendency to underestimate, that the average street haul was only a quarter of 8 mile each way and that the cost was therefore 140,26s, ss740. A saving of two-thirds of this sum would carry to the credit of the economy account of street paving $03, 3,512, ,591.6 60 a year, or, without making any allowance for the annual increase of traffic, S935, 125, ,916 in ten years. The freight moved by the railroads, it is supposable, was carried largely into or from the 225 cities which constitute the principal markets or distributing centers of the country, but, after all, railroad freights repre- sent only portion of the street haul- ing, doubtless much less than one-half, so that after much trimming we are brought at last to the conclusion that the cost of street traffic, largely in cities of more than 10000 population, can be reduced $1s7 oe5, 183 year, or $1,87O, ,251 ,S32 in ten years, which, with interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, would make total saving in @ decade of S1, ,963, ,s04, ,423.50, which would pay for 28,044 miles of street paving at cost of $70,000 mile.