The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-08
OUR STATE HIGHWAYS.
REPORT BY COMMISSIONER JAMES
III. M1CDON4LD.

summary OF Leading Features of Re-
port-IncreasedI Interest In Good IL oads
Throughout the State-Improvemen Is
Suggested Over Existing Conditions.
Below is a summary of some of the
leading features of the report by James
II. Macdonald, state commissioner of
highways, to be presented at the COM
ing session Of the Legislature. This re-
port is of prime interest, showing as it
does the rapidly increasing interest TAX
en- in good roads in Connecticut, and
records not only the amount of work
accomplished by the highly efficient ser
vice of Mr.. Macdonald, but suggests
methods by which the state highways
may be most economically improved
and developed. The report is in part as
follows:
In respectfully submitting my sixth
annual report of the work that has been
done in my department I am pleased to
report that in many ways the sixth
year is a satisfactory one in its COM
parison with the preceding five years.
Comparing one years work with an
other it is an increase of the work done
in other years. With long, easy,
swinging strides the little state of Con-
necticut is marching on to the general
Improvement of her roads.
What was at first an experiment has
become fixed principle and a certain
ty. We have had since my last report
an accession of forty-two towns asking
for state aid in the improvement Of
their roads. The policy of the state has
been almost universally accepted as a
wise one by the towns. The present
law has been accepted by thirty-nine
towns who have never before particl-
pated in state aid, making a total of
one hundred and three towns who
have applied for state assistance under
this law. This fact demonstrates that
the law of 1899 is the most popular I'M
der which we have worked. This is
principally due to the liberal assistance
by the state and the wise provision In
the law allowing the commissioner to
meet the conditions by which each
town is surrounded.
The present season although handi-
capped by late spring has been a very
favorable one for road building. The
only delay in the work has been from
the inability of the commissioner to get
such a large amount of work properly
started. With so many towns to look
after the danger was great as towns
were anxious to commence once the ap-
preparation was allotted.
The present law has enlarged the field
of work for the commissioner and has
reduced somewhat the jurisdiction of
the towns accepting state aid; but so
far, every change from the laws of 1895
and 1897 has been very much more ben
eflcial to the towns. 1t has never been
the policy of the state to be unpleasant
ly arbitrary in her dealings with the
towns, although at the outset of the
movement it was difficult to have all
towns understand this. AS the towns
have been brought into knowledge of
the attitude Of the state misappr chen
sion has promptly given praise to con-
f1dence
1T YVES atzfirst thought by many peo-
pie of our state that when the roads
through the villages were improved the
interest would die out and that a vote
for the Improvement of other roads
would not be had. On the contrary the
desire for a general improvement of
the roads in all towns in which we have
roads is increasing rather
than diminishing, which fact speaks
well for the future of the Good Roads
Movement"
1t is certainly very proud position
for Connecticut to occupy, that with
the movement for road improvement
only five years and six months old to
find that one hundred and f1fty-nine out
of a total of one hundred and sixty
eight towns have signified desire to
take advantage Of their privilege.
One of the most pleasant develop
ments in the progress of the work is the
Increased number of towns accepting
contracts and constructing their own
work. This gives employment to
and is practical educa-
ton in road building. We have had
during the past year thirty-six towns
which have accepted contracts. A
great assistance to this has been the
provision in the law allowing no out
side competition where the improve
ment did not cost over five hundred |
dollars.
During the last year the commission
or felt that the full meaning and inten-
tion of the law is that where a town did
not receive an amount in excess of one
thousand dollars for a two years APP
that it was equivalent to
simply a double appropriation of five |
hundred dollars, and he decided to re- /
move outside competition and let the
contract direct to the town where the
mount did not exceed one thousand
dollars. This has resulted in greater
number of towns accepting contracts
han ever before. 1t is the practice of
he commissioner in these cases to
make the survey personally, and esti
nate the amount of money at which
he contract is to be let, thereby saving
he expense of surveying and other in
,idental expenses that the town would
otherwise have had to pay
I have many times improved four,
i've and six sections on a main highway
With an appropriation of one thousand
dollars, and while each section would
lot extend over many lineal feet of
DAD, the sections selected are places
hat had been for years a weak spot on
he road, and would have been i'm
proved long ago had the town been
financially able to SO do. 1t stands to
eason that if a road having five or six
,ad places at different points on a road 8
tx miles long, and these bad sections ,
an be removed for one thousand dol s
ars, thereby retaining and making a
God road of the five or six miles, 1t is :
money well invested. As matter of