Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-04-06
Maintaining Good Roads.

the minds of many that once a maca-
dam road is laid down. that solves the
road problem in that locality for al
time, except for matter of $50
year which must be spent on each
mile to clean up bushes on the side
repairs. 1t is on this understand
ing that many miles of first class
macadam road have been built in
Maine, and row. when some of them
have come TO repair, men who coun :
tenanced their building under that
misapprehension. feel that someone
has made a serious error. If any one
! has beer led into favoring the
building of good roads by the palo
statement that once built 1t would
never cost more than $50 per mile per
wear to maintain them. they nave
right to feel that they were led into
the expenditure through misstate-
ment of fact.
The state OF Massachusetts has had
more experience with macadam roads
than has Maine, but there, the main
tenance. which includes not only the
minor repairs. but the major repairs
| i'm addition TO the work which must
be done every year to keep a road in
first class condition to protect the
,<riy i'm iS mol 1nrsl
| than so a year. The expenditure for
maintenance is larger if properly con-
Quoted than has been generally real
lied and repairs must be made
promptly and thoroughly if they are
not to be permitted to become even
greater than the original cost.
A recent report of the chief engineer
of the Maryland division of highways
contains the following paragraphs:
Massachusetts originally eX-
pecteG the annual maintenance Of
her modern roads to be about 500
per mile, and for years did keep
il at about that figure. OF late
years the demands have steadily
risen, and now the estimate for
the maintenance of the roads built
before the influx of automobile
traffic reaches $500 per mile ac-
cording to the latest figures of
Chairman Parker. 1t is easy.
therefore, to see how. if the MAIN
tenance can be reduced to the orig
inal figures by so doing, consider
able increase in first cost may be
justified
The $50 u mile, which has OCCASION
ally been mentioned in Maine, be-
comes 500 a mile in the original esti-
mile in actual practice, though the
larger sum does not include any al
loWance for the general resurfacing
of the road. 1t covers only the patch
ing and cleaning of the road and
bitches and the removal of grass,
weeds and brush. Resuriacing is in
evitable within thirty years accord
ing to such statistics as are available.
If travel is heavy it must be done
oteHer imam t1at, sometimes as OIL
ten as once in three years.
This statement of fact concerning
the maintenance of macadamized road
is not meant TO be an objection to the
building of such roads, even though
the largest estimate contained in the
Parker reports. Even then macadam
roads near centers of population are
a splendid investment. Properly
built roads of any kind constitute
gcod Investment. but it is only right
thai the tax payer should have ac-
curate knowledge of the cost of
maintenance of such roads
To pursue this subject little furth-
er it is we'll established that the old
adage that "a stitch in time saves
nine" was never better applied than in
the case of highways. Repairs which
are needed cannot be postponed prof
tably. An instance is recorded
"hSi'' III lSUo, estimates ny competent
engineers placed the cost of necessary
repairs on a much used piece of road
at $4,000 and the following year, af-
ter the road had been used but twelve
months longer. the engineers were
compelled to revise their estimate to
s39.9sO. In another case it was esti-
mated that it would have cost $l50 to
repair road in 1908, but in the fol-
lowing year it was necessary to spend
$34S upon it and this year it is esti-
mated that it will cost $3.50 more. If
the work had been done properly in
1908. when the necessity for it first
appeared, $500 of the taxpayers mon
ey would have been available for other
uses. 1t is, therefore, well to remem-
Der when considering good roads. that
II is going to cost a great deal more
than $50 mile to maintain them and
that the absolutely necessary repairs
cost win be increased many fold if the
repairs are not promptly and thor