Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-11-28
AGITATION FOR
BETTER ROADS
A. N. JOHNSON, ILLINOIS STATE
ENGINEER TELLS OF THEIR
WORK.
FAvoRs ROAD DRAG
Illinois Has Experimented With the
Road Drag and State Engineer
Says It Is Good
Thing.


Thing.
The good roads proposition is just
now receiving boost in Iowa. as we'll
as In many of the neighboring states.
In many instances boards Of trade,
commercial and merchants associa-
lions are taking the matter UP locally
as In the case of the Ottumwa Retail
Merchants association which desires
to better the road condition into and
out of Ottumwa.
At recent meeting of the good
roads school held at Council Bluffs. A.
N. Johnson. state engineer of the I'LL
nois highway commission. addressed
the school. An extract taken from his
talk follows
Road Maintenance Costly.
What does 1t cost the taxpayers a
year for roads and bridges under the
which the present system gives?
These form two important questions to
Inquire irto
A summary of the road expenditures
OF the state Of Illinois shows that IN
1908 the FOCAL cost of maintaining a.
al miles Of :'lblic highways. including
beth money and labor tax, was $4,Is5,-
S66. of which S490,56S Is the estimated
value of the labor tax, le;l.ing - 1884,,
s02 us the ec1ual cash tAx raised. Of
this amount si,sSS,730 were spent for
bridges.
Through the aid Of the rs. 900 rural
letter carriers of the state, exact in
formation covering over a third Of
the roads in the state has been secur
ed Concisely, the summary of this
information is that most of the roads
are bad many weeks of each year.
Much of the work is done at the
wrong season, and the system is an
extravagant one.
How much are the roads used? How
many vehicles pass over a given road?
The value Of a road like anything else,
Is determined by the amount of use
that Is made of 1t. If it is found that
two different roads are put to the
same amount Of use, that is, carry the
same humber of traffic, and these
roads are situated in different COM
nlunities. in one of which it is found
economical and an advantage to the
community to spend $4,000 a mile for
construction, is 1t in general fair to as
sumo that it would be worth while for
the second community to spend about
the same amount on its roads which
have an equal amount Of travel.
Good Earth Roads.
One of the first problems to demand
the attention Of the commission was
the proper maintenance of earth roads.
The earth road drag Is the simplest
and, at the same time. one of the best
means for caring for earth roads.
When the commission began It's work,
considerable had been heard about the
drag, but Its use was not at all COM
mon. Special effort was made to bring
to the attention Of all the local high
way commissioners and everyone in
terested In the improvement Of the
mud roads. the great benefits that
could be secured by this very inexpen-
sive method. Twenty-Five thousand
copies Of a bulletin describing how to
make the drag and exactly how to use
1t were distributed In all parts Of the
state. and before the summer opened
it was reported that there were no less
than four thousand drags in use.
At Galva. Henry county, perhaps the
most systematic work has been done
through the Galva Good Roads asso-
citation. They undertook over year
ago the maintenance of roads leading
into Galva, and TODAY these are among
the very best earth roads to be found
anywhere in the state. The associa-
ton has carried on. the work system.
atically and aroused the necessary in
terest and impetus to keep the work
going
The convict labor law of Illinois.
which provides that the board of pris-
on industries of the state shall furnish
to the state highway commission
crushed rock for free distribution
among local road officials is attracting
much attention from road authorities
all over the country. There has been
for some time a general feeling that
the convicts could be employed on
public works, such as road building,
and a practical solution of how to ac-
complish this has ben undertaken in
different states.
Crushers at Joliet.
There are at the present three
crushers in operation, one at the Joliet
penitentiary in the northern part of
the state and two at the southern
penitentiary The combined capacity
Of these crushers is 1880 cubic yards
sold enough Of the crushed stone in
open market to pay for the installa
ton Of the machinery so that this pro-
duct is absolutely without additional
cost to the taxpayers Of the state This
plan seems the most equitable ar
rangement that could be made for the
conditions that exist In Illinois. where
some sections Of the state are album
dainty provided with road making ma
terials and others have none at all.
With low freight rates and free ma
eerial it is possible for those communi-
ties that do not have road materials,
to get the crushed rock from the
penitentiary at very low cost, and
yet one portion Of the state is not tax
ed for the benefit Of another The
question of a large state aid appro-.
priation. which is bitterly opposed in
| many sections of Illinois is met COM
pletely by this method Of state CO..
| operation vi
Experimental Roads.
| With the aid of the material thus
| prepared. the commission has been
able to construct experimental stone
roads in sections of the state where
macadam roads have never before
been used or built at cost of little
more than the expense Of supervision
! The commission also furnishes the roll
lers and sprinklers, as few connmuni-
ties are at present provided with these
necessities for proper stone road build
ing.
These roads are experimental in two
ways first, in that they demon
strate the physical possibility of max :
| ing thia kind of. a road I1nder given