The suburban citizen., 1901-01-19
God Roads E6iSs
l'..,
Vhnt Massaohuseits Has Been Doing.
r. r. C. MENDENHALL.

member of the Massachu
sets Highway Commission, recently
delivered an address before the Auto
mobile Club of America on the policy
now pursued by the Old Bay State IN
regard to roads He said that for ths
last six or eight years Massachusetts
had spent more money than any other
State in the Union on her roads. For
this new system the people were in.
debted largely to the wheelmen of the
State. The bicycle had thus done
public service.
The topography Of Massachusetts is
different from that of New York and
New Jersey, and the supply Of material
is not the same. The general plau
that is now being followed is to con.
struct in the best possible manner Il
complete system of roads throughout
the Commonwealth. THIS does not
mean the reconstruction of all eY.
listing roads. Only about ten per cent.
of the roads are to be rebuilt. This
is about The same percentage as is
maintained by the National Govern.
ment in France. Not counting city
streets, Massachusetts has about tweu-
lty thousand miles of roads. Hence
sOnly two thousand miles will be in
fcluded In the new scheme. These
however, will be judiciously dis
tributed over the State, so that there
will scarcely be a farm or corner OF
the State which will not be within two
or three or four or, at most, five miles
of this great system of State high
ways. 1t is expected that the local
roads connecting these more remote
localities with the great system will he
improved, and, in fact, many Of them
have already been improved and con-
nected with the main system by the
local people.
Thus far nearly three hundred miles
of road have been built, at an average
cost slightly exceeding $4,000 a mile
But this will probably be reduced a
triie ere long. An annual appropria-
ton of S5OO,OO0 enables the Commits
sion to build about fifty miles a year.
DIR. Mendenhall said that if $1,000000
was asked for the Legislature would
probably give it, but the Commission
was satisfied with less 1t should be
remarked that although the counties
repay one-fourth of the cost, the mon.
ey is provided ut first by the State, aud
spent under the direction of the State
Commissioners, who are three in num-
ber. The work is done in such a way
that the roads will be as good twenty,
thirty and forty years hence as to-
day Here are a few particulars sup
piled by the address:
We build our roads mainly Of maca-
dam. We have built six or eight miles
of gravel out Of 2TO or rs, the total
mileage up to this time We have not
yet found-althOugh we would be glad
to do so-a gravel road to be a very
satisfactory road, especially where
there is considerable traffic Where
the traffic is small it seemed to do well,
but we have found that 1t costs near
ly as much to build a gravel road as
it does to build stone road When
you spend as much money as you must
In grinding and drainage and culverts
and all of the things that must go with
the road except the mere surface, then
you do not gain so much by simply u.s.
ing gravel instead Of broken stone, and,
as broken stone Is so much more last
ing and better in every way than
gravel, we have mostly used it. Our
roads are macadamiZed fifteen feet
wide, with an extension of three feet
on each side, making a trayelable
way Of tWenty-one feet. We limit the
grade Of our roads to five per cent;
we occasionally, however, have to raise
1t to six or six and a half where our
hills are so long and steep that it
would be extremely costly to reduce
them to a five per cent. grade.
We pay great attention to the re.
moval of water, which is the great
curse Of the public road, as everybody
knows, doing a great deal Of drainage
side drainage using telfOrd a great
deal and putting down drain pipes on
both sides; in fact about half Of the
$4,000 per mile that 1 speak Of is
under ground in our roads; half Of It
Is not visible, so that the surface part
Which people mostly see, and whicn
ihey only see, represents about $4,000
or $4,000 of the total $4,000 which Is
spent. We put more stone upon our
roads than is the practice Of some
other States. Our standard road is
six to eight inches Of stone after it Is
rolled.
We put the stone down in three DIFF
ferent sizes, in three layers, which is
a practice much condemned by some
road builders, but highly approved Of
by us after considerable experience in
both systems, and each course is rolled
very thoroughly by ten-ton or twelve
ton roller as 1t Is put down, so in the
end we have a solid pack Of six or
eight inches in thickness, and, II nee
essary, with telford six or eight inches
underneath. Our masonry work In
bridges and culyerts Is as good as can
be made. Our system is expensive