Connecticut western news., 1912-04-04
GOOD ROADS PLANS
Highway Commissioner Macdonald Outlines Work for Coming Season.

Highway Commissioner Macdonald
 Outlines Work for Coming Season.
 The chairman of the publicity com mittee of the Connecticut Automobile Association q. M. Emerson) recently addressed letter of inquiry to State Highway Commissioner Macdonald for information relating to plans of work of the department for the coming sea- son, covering the date for the begin ming of that work, the policy to be pur- sued in the application of stone and oil the plans for the year, whether and special legislation is needed for the in- creasing motor truck traffic of the State, etc. The commissioner makes reply as follows
 "There is no fixed time for the State to commence operations, as the character of the weather and the severity of the winter has very much to do with the starting of the work every season. This has been SO ever since have been com missioner. The exact time for begin ming operations has been left to the judgment of the selectmen in the vari- ous towns in which we are constructing state roads. h other words, we ordina- rilY commence our new work on April 15 last year, however. we did not be- gin the work until the 24th of April
 "The repairs during the past two years have been under the surveillance of county engineers and repairsmen. The system which we have now, under the law is county engineer for each county and a supervisor of repairs for each fy overlooked by a chief engineer, and the supervisors of repairs are under gen. eral superintendent of repairs. Last year was the arst under this system and we found that it worked out finely, Of course, the work will progress better as the men become more fully acquainted with the nature of the work, and the present methods will be perfected.
 "We have organized patrol system all over the state and the first week in March l sent out instructions to all the repairsmen in the state to make an in- vestigatIon to their respective counties and to make a personal report to this de- partment on the goth of this month. Fortunately these instructions were gwen before the tremendous storms came and the men were already at work upon their investigations. All repairs men have carte blanche to employ what ever men and teams are necessary fer and emergency and to make and repairs | needed to put all our roads in A safe and pleasant condition for the travel. With the frost going ln to the great depth which it has during the past win ter, followed by the tremendous rains, l it has decided tendency to make trou- ble for all departments of public works. So far have not heard of any greas trouble in our state work. Nothing could occur to the travel path where ws( have the macadam. The only thing which could cause trouble is a washout in some heavy embankment. Nothing has developed, however, but what can be very readily taken care of without danger to life or damage to property.
 with reference to the material on some of the roads--we found some diff fculty with the oil in it's application in the early spring and late fall, having to heat 1t before 1t could be applied to the surface of the road. But we progressed very we'll with this branch of the work better, think, last year than the year before, as the men brcame more ao- customed to it's application. In fact, our superintendent of oiling had his work systematized better last year than before and he promises to take care of sohe ol the WehKneSses III HIS system during the coming year.
 With reference to some of the stone applied on the roads for repairs, the de- partment found that the stone delivered was in excess of the dimensions required and that the application of the stone had, in some instances, been without authority from this partment For this reason we have had to make several changes in the character of the repairs made, and anticipate that that part of the work will be taken care of during the next season. It is a difficult matter to watch every carload of stone coming in, but it is the intention of the depart ment to make efficient, intelligent re-