The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-12-16
BENNINGTON COUNTY ROADS
Large Amount of Work Done During
Past Months.

During the past construction sea-
son there has been considerable road
work done in Bennington County.
There have been constructed in fact
% sections in IA different towns,
This work has been done for the
most part under the advice of and
supervision of a representative of
the United States Office of Public
Roads. Several types of surfacing
have been used. There have been
Is gravel roads built, 3 roads sur
faced with hard pan, / with crushed
stone, 2 with clay and gravel mixed,
| and roads were simply drained and
surfaced with the natural soil.
The distribution of this road i'm
provement among the towns is as fol-
lows: Pownal, sections; Sandgate
8 sections; Manchester, sections;
Woodford, 2; Sunderland, 2; Rupert,
2; and | each in Winhall, SALISBURY,
Stamford, Searsburg, Arlington,
Bennington, Glastonbury and Land
| grove.
There has been built in addition an
arch stone bridge of % foot span in
the town of Manchester. The total
length of road graded amounted to
| 26972 feet, total surfacing 26272
! feet, and the total cost of the work
done was $2O.39966 reported to date.
Some of the principal features of
| the construction work were the re-
| duction of steep grades and the ell
mination of curves. Some of the
curves were dangerous to travel and
ha frnnnnnf1u
| Some filling was done to obtain drain
age, and considerable rock has been
removed. In all cases suitable foun-
dation for the roads has been pro-
| vided and adequate drainage
The interest in road work in most
! of the towns has been greatly stimu-
! lated. In fact to such an extent that
| citizens donated gravel, stone and
other material On almost all the
| jobs the officials worked in co-opera-
| ton with the engineer, Mr.. Winslow
assigned by the Office of Public
Roads last May There certainly has
been gratifying result in several
directions, particularly in the matter
of accounting and in the use of the
has been found that dragging can be
done at cost varying from 25 cents
to $3.50 per mile, and that the re-
suits are distinctly beneficial to
travel.
Mr. Winslow, acting as the repre-
sentative of the u. S. Office of Pub
lie Roads, has continued to collect
data upon which to base a thorough
economic study of the service of the
roads to the county. II was original
ly planned that traffic statistics and
traffic survey would be completed in
every town in which road improve
ment was systematiZed. If the as
signment of the Government repre-
sentative is continued, certainly
Bennington County should obtain
valuable information and assistance
in its road work, if the past season is
evidence of what can be looked for.
In addition to the activities in road
building noted above, the work of the
government representatives in other
capacities must not be omitted. Mr..
Winslow has been of service in every
town in the county in connection
with all phases of road work. He
has given special attention to coun-
try highways where his services
have been demanded for special in
spection and advice, for assistance in
directing road management and ac-
counting, to deliver lectures and to
make surveys. Besides all this, road
material has been investigated, re-
locations suggested and Mr. Win
slows time has been at the service
of road officials at all times for
many other special problems