The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-11
Says Macadam Highways
 Will Not Last for Autos Former State Engineer Re ports Barge Canal Con- tracts of $13,4OO,O00 Let In Last Year.

! Albany Feb. 1.-The annual repOr to the Legislature of Frederick Skene former State Engineer and Surveyor was made public recently. Skene deal with two important subjects that hac the Barge Canal and of State high i ways. He lays much stress upon thu necessity of providing highways tha; i will stand the wear of automobiles ant leaves warning on that subject to the l Legislature. He says auto traffic vii nave to be restricted more or new methods of road building adopted.
 Skene referred to his discussion o1 the same problem in his report of 2 year ago. He said the suction of broad auto tires on the roads and the use o1 non-skidding devices were telling heav. | lily on macadam highways.
 ! Within the last year, says Skene the Empire State has we'll maintain ed it's position in the vanguard of the dred miles of splendid new macadam | highways have been thrown open tc ! the public"
 1 The problem of maintaining the roads. he says, has become doubly diff 1 f1cult in the last year.
 l Until the advent of the motor cars, T l he says. these conditions have beer
 
 1 satisfactory. but conditions now have radically changed. The macadam roa6 1 of to-day is being rapidly denuded ot it's binding material and it's wearing surface distintegrated. The construc. l ton methods of the past will not meet l the requirements of the future or ever of the present. Either the traffic which produces this disastrous result must bt l restricted or new methods, however eX. | penslVe. must be used in construction 1 to meet the conditions which confront l us. Does any sane man who has fol lowed this question believe for a mo- | ment that the first alternative will be realized? It follows, then. that the sooner the second alternative is adopt. l ed. the better for all concerned. Fines and license fees, to any req sonable extent. do not reach the root l of the difficulty. nor will they meet more than a tithe of the expense in volVed.''
 Telling about the progress of the barge canal, Skene says that in the year contracts to the amount of $13,- 400, 900 were let. so that contracts for the building of Q total of 194 miles of the canal at a total contract price of $35, TOO 900 have been entered into. In the last year work amounting to $5,- one-half times that of the previous year. Tn the latter part of the sea- son, Skene says. the work was going on at the rate of $1,000.000 a month. Skene said that in the present con- tracts there was saving of 4.3 per cent. from the engineers estimates and saving of 71a per cent. from the ap- propriation estimates of 1903.
 Skene emphasizes the point that wig orous appeals should be made to Con- gross for an appropriation for the "canalization" of the Hudson to Wa terford. the end of the barge canal. He said he already has set the case clear ly before the Rivers and Harbors Com mittee and he has prepared mem orial to Congress asking for aid. He said the Hudson River Improvement Association had been organized to ad- vocate 22-foot channel in the Hudson River to connect with the barge canal at Waterford