Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-08-26
WORTHLESS REPAIRS
ENORMOUS SUMS WASTED ANNUAL
LY ON ROADS.

Engineer Price of California Presents
some startling Figures-Culverts should
lie Built of Masonry and Bridges of
Steel-LeaI<s which Can BE stopped.
Some months ago the people of Sacra-
mento county, CAL, voted to issue bonds
for road construction purposes, but
owing to possible defect in the law
the matter is in the courts for adjudica-
ton. Not long after San Mateo county
voted on the same question and decisive
y rejected It. 1t is said that this result
indicates "that the people generally are
not willing to bond their credit for the
purpose of constructing good roads,
and that if improvements are to be
made in the highways, some other
method of providing means for it must
be found.
In an exhaustive address on the sub
ect, Engineer j. r. Price of the state
highway commission, recently consider
ed the matter in detail and showed
what could be accomplished if the mon
ey that is annually spent in worthless
repairs should be devoted to building
permanent roads. In this respect Cali
fornia may be taken as a sample of
nearly every state, the same considera-
lions applying to all.
Mr.. Price found that every county
spends from $4,000 to $50, 900 in re-
pairs each year; that for II years prior
to 1895 the total was Sl7, ,7lI94,
or yearly average of 81 ,G23, 70l but
,- rn ~
cuded in these figures, he considers the
annual outlay to be S2,000,O0O, and
there are no improvements in the roads
to show for it.
If this outlay is continued for 10 years,
the amount expended would reach $50
100000, and this sum would pay for the
construction of 10000 miles of good
macadam, costing $1,000 mile. There
are in the state about H,000 miles of
roads, and to macadamize one-quarter of
them, or / 900 miles, would satisfy the
commercial needs of the state; hence
within 10 years not only could this
enormous amount of macadam be laid,
but enough money be left over to make
the necessary repairs. Hard roads CON
structed in this manner would come
slowly, but they would come in time,
ard it might prove that when the people
began to realize what they gained from
them they would find it worth while to
issue bonds in order to hasten the i'm
provements.
The practice of erecting wooden
bridges, culverts and drainways Mr..
Price finds as wasteful as present meth
DDS of road repair. On the basis of the
expenditures of the last eight years the
outlay for the next 40 years would be
S2,S47 900, and this for repairs alone :;
and yet with this sum he says he can
"bulld stone, concrete or sewer pipe
drains and steel bridges where necessary
on all the roads in each county named"
To illustrate this, masonry can be
constructed at cost of from 81 to 50
per cubic yard, concrete for about the
same. Sewer pipe can be laid in place
for from GO cents to $l.75 per lineal
foot, according to the bore of the pipe.
A three foot culvert with three foot
walls will contain .63 of a cubic yard
per running foot; four foot culvert,
three feet high, 81 of a cubic yard; a
five foot culvert, four feet high. 80 of
cubic yard, without wings; five foot
culvert, with five foot side walls, LIS
cubic yards. Then let culvert be "a
feet long, feet high, with a span of
feet. 1t will cost, at So per yard, S165.-
GO, containing 27,G cubic yards of ma
sonry. The same span placed with lum-
Der cannot be constructed for less than
500, and frequently costs as much as
the stone structure. The wooden struct-
ure lasts from five to ten years, while
the concrete or masonry lasts forever"
The erection of permanent structures
will sin the course of time close this
leak in the road funds of the state. 1t
is source of expense that in the period
of 20 or 30 years may be entirely oblt-
Grated if the proper course be pur-
sued. This would give you more money
to put stone upon your roads. We had
better start at the foundation and come
up rather than build from the top down
to the foundation. And your founda-
lions are not complete without perma-
nent substructures."