The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1905-06-29
!. An OBJECT LESSON IN
GOOD ROADS BUILDING.
Olive Oak crescentJ
q I

There are some igneramuses who
have had the assurance to assert that
good roads could be constructed in
Suwannee county at an average cost
of s., 900 per mile or less. OF course
they shot of their bazcos with this
kind of chat through mere ignorance,
because every reading. sensible man
knows, If he has an ounce OF brains
and a thimble full OF sense, that hard
roads cost FIVE thousand dollars mile
in New Jersey and of course they cost
the same everywhere. and the figure
is absolutely accurate whether it is
accurate or not. Who ever heard Of a
hard road costing less than ave thous-
and dollars a mile? It - an absolute
necessity for hard road to cost $1,000
mile, that is one of the prerogatives
of hard road, and 1t mist cost that,
be 1t built through country where
material is as plentiful as sunshine,
or be it built one thousand miles from
the material. One undisputable duty
hard road owes to the present and
posterity is the duty to cost $4,000
per mile. and If II don't cost It then
it has failed to do its whole duty. A
hard road that has cost less than FIVE
thousand dollars mile Is not a hard
road no matter how hard and good
Il is.
Something Ike eight months ago
Marshal w. H. Lyle, with a gang of
conviets, paved d portion OF Howard
street and Ohio avenue. This paw
ing was done with a mixture of soft
lime rock and clay II was put dowf.
to the regulation depth recommended
by all builders of hard roads, and when
the first rains came il was awful,
simply terrible, and the work AID
so-called hard road was heartily laugh
ed at by those who had persistently
maintained that hard roads must cost
i've thousand dollars per mile, because
these had cost less than five hundred
per mile for a Is foot road. The adj
vocates Of roads hung their heads,
that Is those who said roads could be
built within figure the people could
AFFORD. Time has drifted on as time
VIII always do IL left to It's own incli.
nations. and that pavement has chang
ed, within the past few weeks the
heaviest of heavy rains have fallen,
HNl SAC cdAlaSE Va lllal BdNOUlCuI has
remained firm, 1t has gotten to the
point where neither sun or rain efec;
it, 1t is task to dig through it with a
pick, and it wo1ld be fine road Oh,
such ine road but for one, lust one
little thing, il didn't cost Eve thou.
sand dollars per mile, an We regret il
so much, If 1t only had the good roads
question might be solved.
1t is such a pity. True 200 miles OF
this kind of road could be built for a
little over 100000 and it would give
the people fine system OF public
highways, as good roads as anybody
could ask for---but, they didn't cost
$4,000 per mile, and ID Is a matter OF
vital Importance that hard. roads
should cost that much money, and NO
road, no matter how good it is, is
worth cent unless It costs $4,000 per
mile. Every well regulated road should
cost that, and the reading, thinking
public knows 1t. =
Build hard road for $4,000? Why,
man. that's taking advantage of cir
cumstances and robbing conditions OF
its advantages, and that would never
do. Its wrong. awfulr, wrong. and
We who are honest ana upright mus,
not submit to It for moment.