The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-23
.ENSLEY HIGHWAY
 PLAN INDORSED
 ON EVERY SIDE J. H. Adams Points Out Practi- cal Value to the County of
 This Model Road
HEIDEL ON HAND 10 AID
 PIERCE IN HIS POLICY
Proposed Road Will Shorten Distance From Birmingham To EnsIey Mile and a HaIf-Through
 Populous Section.

The arrival of Government Engineer F. I. Heidel in the city yesterday, and the widespread approval of the plan suggested by Chief Engineer Vernon M. Peirce n yesterdays Age-Herald, makes 1t prob able that the right of way will be inn medately secured for the 6O-foot high way from Birmingham to Ensley, and the work under the expert supervision will be undertaken immediately
 John H. Adams, vice president and treasurer of the Sayre Mining and Manu- featuring company has addressed the fol- lowing letter.
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 The advice of MT. Peirce, chief engineer of public roads, United States, as showr in your issue of yesterday, to make the new road from Graymont to Ensley JV feet wide, was sound and practical, and the citizens will undoubtedly give the required right of way.
 1t should be at least 60 feet wide, and the time is not far off when public seh- timent will call for a thoroughfare 100 feet in width between Ensley and Br- mingham.
 Necessity For Proposed Road.
 A glance at the map and little thought of the districts development will show the necessity of a good road between the two cities. A line running from the coal fields. say from the center of section 15, township r, range (near Sayreton nines), due south through the center of sections 22-27 and 34, township IT, range and continuing still due south, through the centers of sections 3-10 and 15, town slip IS, range west to Graces Gap, passes Smithfeld Elyton and Cleveland, leaving most of their population on the east side of such line, as well as all of North Birmingham and the city of Bir- mingham.
 Within the next five years there will be spent in industrial development from six to nine times more money west of tha. line than will be spent on the east side, judging by the expenditures authorized at the present moment, and it is fact that the payrolls are H per cent greater now on the western side than those of tns east or Birmingham side of the line named above.
  half miles less from Birmingham to Ems ley than any other road leading out of the city; it has d good foundation and easy grade, and the fact remains that as a continuation of Birminghams Eighth avenue it is the only road available for erect connection with Ensley.
 Would Parallel Enon Ridge.
 Hal which within the next ten years will be thicl1ly covered with handsome residences because of its proximity (being between) to the two most populous valleys of the Birmingham district. The development of this ridge within the past two years for residence purposes has been phenomenal, and from Norwood to near Woodward furnaces 1t is the ideal location for houses hence the importance of good roads at its base, (and for that mateer the crest Of the ridge would make the great drva Of Brmingham).
 The entire road passes through a sec tion rapidly filling up with a desirable population. It is the natural thorough fare. for visitors desiring to reach the steel works and other industries at Ens- ley by carriage or automobile, and at present from Walker street to DuckponJ gap it is almost impossible in places, ai- though the principal and natural road for heavy traffic hetween the two cities.
 Desirable Changes Proposed.
 The Board of Revenue has done much good work, and built many miles of ex- cellent roads, but it has been trammelled by a system of "everybody's business, nobody's business" but which it proposes to change by adopting the Ramsay plan of making some practical man responsi- ble for each section of road in our coun- ty. When it shall have done this, and Tn. addition thereto have built a handsome highway binding Ensley to Birmingham, it will have done more. not only to ad- vertse Birmingham, but to make Greater Birmingham, greater Jefferson county, and still greater Alabama; for the creed of the man who has and will have money to spend in this goth century Is By their roads ye shall know them.'
 JOHN H. ADAMS.