Rocky Ford enterprise., 1897-04-22
COSTLY ROAD WORK.
FlImsy Culverts and Temporary koa'
ways That Are ExtnavaENnt.


ways That Are ExtravagNnt.
The San Francisco Mining and Scientific
Press has the following valuable sngEes
tions about extravaganza In road building:
as e ssea "a roe
roads In California. II Is to be borne IN
mind thnt u large amount OF money Is an
rious counties-onc man writes that In his
county 55 per cent. of the taxes collected
are so expendcd.but 1t sometimes hnPpehs
that that money Is not wisely or 1udiciousiy
spent.
Herewith Is illustrated two striking In.
Thr lower picture shows plank culvcrt.
which looks economical. but Is really tax
consuming device.
always extravaEant. though the nIst cost
has an economical look on paper. They con.
snmS large @ amount ,S 81 nmSS ont ana ~ WSre
whole lot OF county machinery is set at
ease has been cited In which a man and
team were sent to pq; plank In NJ, ,nE,s hIidEc =
in the zinc morning, got a plank from a lumber
yard aud proceeded to the broken bridge
four or 1--WE. miles away. Arriving about
loaded the plank. lie found that he had
bought n twciveinch plank instead OF n ten
Inch; and w was forced , to Leave the, the misat
IL was too late In the day to return he un-
hitched and turned In for tho night: The
yard and got a plank Of the right. width
and started again for the broken bridge:
Arriving there he found shs, 10 some zee one ssd "a
gap. but he succeeded In mailing down the
new one and got back to town that night:
OF course Included the cost of two planks
md two days time Of man and team TO put
one plank In bridHc.a job which should
able substructurcs are likely to be very ex.
pensiyc In this way. and that Is the reason
so cheap In the end. The plank culvcrt
shown In the engraving will require con.
slant patching and renewal. md VIII there.
MS a cement and glazed scwcr.plpe culvcrt
would.
The upper picture on this page Is just as
struction Of roadway over n lava plain In
Tehama county. The plan has been to roll
but the material beneath was of such nature
that tho roadway soon became dangerous
and almost impnssabic. Five times. there.
fore. new roads were arranged to take the
place Of those worn ont. and the picture
shows four Of these abandoned roadwnys.
ways. the people undertook to build mac.
adnmxcd road of the rock which lay all
around. There was no public money avail
buy rock crushcr. the ncighbors subscribed
1000 days labor of themselves md teams.
mama man and beas, while the % work was in prog. @
rcss. and the result Is the mncadamized road
of which a portion is shown at the extreme
right of the picture. II has cost less than
did the Ave worn-out roads. and II will last
for n lifetime with a little care and watch
fuiness II was a hard place to build road.
for there was no soil Into which excavation
could be made TO hold the broken rock In
place, hut by piling up the loose rocks on
each side. and making n crushed rock road.
way between these retaining lines of large
rock. the difficulty has been overcome.
This. too. shows how good Job will be n
permanent Improvement and thus enter
Into the actual wealth and resources OF the
county. while n poor road Is not only OK.
pcnsivc, hut represents no Investment at all,
because It has no durability or pcrmanence
In II.