Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1911-08-03
ONLY A SMALL PART OF
MISSOURrS ROADS ARE
INPROVED--sOME FACTS
OF THE 10000 MILES OF HIGH.
WAYS ONLY 1000 MILES ARE
MAcADAM AND $500 GRAVEL
OF THIS AuDRAIN HAS NONE
OF IMPROVED ROADS
Worst roads are great economic
waste-Much money is spent on
the State roads-Wooden strue-
lures condemned.

missouri mas lZU,0OO miles oil
roads of which one thousand miles
are of macadam, $500 are of gravel
and the rest of earth, according to
the report of the State Labor Bu-
reau for this year. The Bureau ol
Labor statistics gathers information
about practically every form of de
velopment in the State, and the Red
Book, its annual publication, will
deal extensively in information abouf
roads this year.
In round numbers, the State, ac-
cording to this report, is spending 2
"a million dollars annually on roads.
The same authority divides the ex-
penditures into 100000 for rock
roads, 100000 for gravel roads and
l million for earth roads, and $780,
900 for bridges and 100000 for cul-
verts. On bridges the cost of main
tenance is II per cent of the total
amount spent. 1t takes Al percent
of the money spent for culverts to
maintain and replace the wooden
structures.
The Worst Roads Waste.
No one element in the expense of
road maintenance, it is believed,
falls as heavily on the taxpayer or
shows as little foresight on the
part of the people who build them as
the wooden oulverts. Even the met
al bridges are better than the small
wooden structures. A few counties
have learned to dispense with them
and put stone and concrete culverts
in their place. On that question
the Lexington districts commissions
er's have shown an excellent ex-
ample.
The report shows each county is
going ahead with its work accord
ing to its own methods, and there
is wide difference in the methods
of different counties.
For example, the report says:
In two years johnson County built
fifty-six steel bridges with concrete
backing and wing walls. In the same
time 126 concrete culverts, three and
four feet in diameter and eighteen
feet long, were constructed. Some
are round and others square. Some
are rond and others spare. Some
are over steel forms with 10-foot
head walls The wallis are eight
inches thick with 6-inch floors, re-en-
forced with quarter-inch rods, laid
six inches apart. These culverts
cost from $50 to $127 each. Sand,
Joplin chat and limestone were used.
St. Louis Makes its Money Count.
In the last two years in Buchanan
county twenty-one REINFORCED cul-
verts and bridges were built, with
spans from four to fifty feet and
from twenty-four feet to one hum
dred feet in length, containing 942
cubic yards of concrete, at a cost
of S9,45S. Also ten concrete cul-
verts comprising 513 cubic yards of
concrete were biIt at contract price
of $4,000.
Barry county built a gravel road
in some places with fills ten feet
high at cost of $ $1,75S mile.
Greene county uses prisoners in the
county Jail to quarry and break the
rock for macadam roads. st. Louis
county has 800 miles of macadam
roads and 120 of roads surfaced with
gravel Forty-five percent of the en-
tire road mileage of the county is
either macadaIu or gravel surfaced
The county spends S177,OOO year
on the roads, of which an average OF
$44, 900 is for maintenance and re-
pairs. st Louis comfy has always
been able to get more road for the
money spent than any of the Other
counties, while Jackson county has
seemed to get about the least.