The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-06
Good Roads Are
 Treated by Expert Al Bedding Meet
Highway Commissioner Mac donald Listens While New York Deputy Tells How They Should be Constructed

| tion of the selectmen . The little hall, its seating capacity much increased by the replacement of the rough benches with camp stools, was pack 1 ed with a high class audience which | included a sprinkling of ladies and of- l fcialS from several neighboring towns. Commodore Luttgen, chairman of the committee which brought about the meeting, presided, and before intro ducing the speakers referred to the objects of the league which were to conserve the rich natural resources of the town and to secure a general bet terment of conditions tending to great CT attractiveness and hence. to greater value. There was no reason, he said, why Redding's scenic charms and many other advantages should not be
 known far beyond the limits of this State, especially when there were so many city dwellerS intent on obtain ing just such desirable locations for country homes as the town afforded. The first essential in the way of sup plementing these attractions of na- ture was improvement of the roads,
 and in promotion of that cause the meeting was being held.
 Fred Buck, assistant deputy highway
 commissioner of New York State, was
 then introduced and gave a talk, il-
 lustrated by photographs thrown on
 a screen, regarding the road building
 work being done by his State. As
 he proceeded with his description of
 the system and it's results, the audi
 ence wondered why some of these fea-
 lures and more especially those for
 making over the neglected town high
 ways of minor importance had not
 been incorporated with the Connecti-
 cut system. The low cost at which
 these bettermentS were secured and
 some of the methods employed were
 a real revelation to most of those
 present. The whole address was ex-
 ceedingly practical and instructive and
 the vote of thanks given the speaker
 at it's conclusion was something more
 than a mere courtesy tribute.
 MT. Buck said the present New York
 system, while of evolutionary growth,
 had been in operation only three
 years. The law carried an appropria-
 tion of s50,000,009, the expenditure of
 which was to extend over a period of
 several years The State had alto
 gether about 80,000 miles of highways.
 These, under the law, were divided
 into three classes-trunk lines, built
 wholly with State money; county
 funds, and town Sroads, built by the
 town with State aid The latter com
 prised about 10000 miles.
 The executive head of the system
 was the State commissioner who had
 as aides a deputy and an assistant
 uGpuIy, tIG .ldIlOr UOiuS lnO SPCdhCi
 whose particular charge was town
 road improvements. There were in
 addition ten district supervisors and
 a supervisor for each county. For
 town roads improvement the State gave aid to the extent of nearly dollar amount being determined by the towns road tax revenue and the assessed road valuation Tn New York the care of the roads is looked after by a town superintendent. To get State aid the town must spend not less than 80 per mile, which is about the aver age sum road maintenance cost under the old system, so that the improve ments had practically entailed no ad- ditional financial burden upon the towns
 When a town desires State aid it first submits to the county and dis trict supervisors its program in de- tail. In the preparation of this the town superintendent can have the benefit of their expert advice. This plan having been approved, the first expenditure under it, usually from S5 to s1O a mile, is made early in the spring for the cleaning of gutters, fll- ing in of depress1ons and other like work requiring prompt attention. AS to the manner of reconstruction work which comes later, the State officials | exercise no arbitrary direction, tender 1 ing only advice and leaving the town superintendent to say what the style of construction shall be. The State officials do, however, exercise super | vision over the doing of the work in order that right methods are used and proper value received for the money expended. It is one of the conditions for getting State aid that no plank be used for the building of drainage work or bridges. The favorite ma terial now used is concrete, although under certain conditions, stone, tile or steel may be desirable in part at least. Even the steel beams of bridges are encased in concrete which is also used for bridge flooring. It is cheap, prac- ticaIly indestructible, and there is print 1 ed a booklet of instructions which en- ables the town superintendents to di- rect the use of it for construction work without any other technical as- sistance. There were thrown on the screen views of a number of these concrete culverts and bridges with spans of from 20 to 40 feet built at a cost surprisingly low.
 The town superintendent handles no in connection with these road giving only memoranda of the sums due for labor and mater ials These accounts are audited in winter by the State and county off, cials and enough has been saved by that system to pay for the auditors | services. The losses under the for mer method of town audit came from in only rare instances, be- | ing almost wholly due to ignorance and carelessness. The State tempor- | arily withholds ten per cent. of the | it allots to insure the comple- | ton of any job which has been f1gur- | ed at too low an estimate. The stan l dard width, between ditches, of the | town roads are 24.20, and Is feet, al- | though in the mountains this stan l dard is not always insisted upon for | the entire length of a section.
 'Now," said MT. Buck, i've have built under the system have describ- | ed about 5000 miles of macadam and about 1000 miles of gravel road. This is a general Justification because to a large extent they are of mixed con- a considerable percentage being wholly earth roads. I do not like the term dirt roads because dirt | is matter out of place and a dirt road is not properly speaking, a road at all But earth roads rightly con- | from the right kind of ma | terial are not only durable but about | the most comfortable and satisfactory | kind of a road that can be furnished. | You may think that your highway | problem in Bedding is especially diff | ficult because of the hilly and rocky | nature of the country, but your dis in this respect are not | to, be compared with some parts of l New York In the Adirondacks and | the Catskill mountains there are roads, | rebuilt under our town aid system, | which can now be traversed comfort ably by an auto or any other sort of