The record-union., 1895-04-02
a MATTER OF COUNTY INTEREST.

a MATTER OF COUNTY INTEREST.
It is now certain that in the course Of
few months this county will be able to
secure macadam road metal from the
State works to be established at Folsom,
at cost so low that its use will be cheaper
than any other material for roads. 1t is
therefore timely to suggest that the Super
visors order no more roads made until
grade lines are esta blished. That is to say,
that no more road tracks be constructed
upon the inequalities of the surface.
If there is any one thing that more than
another will conserve economy of
maintenance of road augment its wear
ing capacity and lessen cost of sprinkling,
while ii will enlarge the capacity of haul.
it is the establishment of grade lines for
all stretches of roads. It would be pre-
cisely as silly for a railroad to lay its
tracks upon the inequalities of the surface
asst is to build a wagon road in the same
way. OF course when road is so con-
structed it's highest capacity and largest
usefulness as to tonnage in haul is de-
termined by its grades and the in
frequency of the rises and falls in the
road.
A road, no matter how many grades it
may have in a given mileage, is hun
dred per cent. better and cheaper-in the
long run-if It's surface is on even grades,
thus equalizing and minimizing its diff
culties. Very few. if any, of our county
roads are on established grades, and this
fact, as every observer must have noted,
adds to the slowness of the road and the
incapacity of teaming upon it. The very
best thing that the Supervisors could do,
and they should do it at once and gain
the credit that will be theirs, would be to
order surveys with a view to fixing grade
lines on all main roads, say some 200
miles or so. The cost of making these
surveys, no matter what it is, but it will
not be large, will be positive saving. If
We go on and make roads without eatab-
near future we will have to rip up these
roads and do the work over, and the first
work will, therefore, be fifty per cent of
dead loss. Let our Supervisors consult
the experience of the people in any one
of several States where permanent road
work has been DONE and they will find
that We have stated simple economic
fact.
In this connection it is well also to call
attention to the fact that the Governor
and Prison Commissioners cannot order
the crushing plant to be purchased for
the Folsom trap quarry until certain
number of cubic yards of road metal have
been subscribed for, not paid for but
promised to be taken within reasonable
time. The county of Sacramento should,
therefore, at once send communication
to the Governor agreeing to take certain
amount of the metal, which will be fol-
lowing the example OF the city of Sacra-
nlento, that has already sent in its SUBJ
Bcription.
No county in the State is going to ben
eft so much by the establishment of the
new works as is this, because it is nearest
TO the point Of production. Under the
State scheme we will be able to have
stone roads in Sacramento County at
cost unparalleled for cheapness The re-
suit will be the enhancement of values
almost Immediately, the incoming of de-
Eirable population. the augmenting OF
productive capacity and general better
ment along the whole line-not remotely,
but now, within the year indeed, if only
our county legislators act promptly and
plan at once for adopting the modern
system OF construction, abandoning in
stantly that now in vogue, which is in
the main uneconomic and will not give
rs the results that we can have at less
cost and within very short time.