Milford chronicle., 1912-03-29
THE COLEMAN DU PONT HIGHWAY
THROUGH THE STATE OF DELAWARE
An Object Lesson IN Road Budding and Maintenance
by Coleman du Pont

Ou tuc IOdu. Inc IldfTOReSC part
) will be 20 feet wide, 3 of which will
, be "met,l" The curves will be
limited to five degrees, and this will
: be used only where it is necessary on
entering towns or overcoming natural
, obstacles in New Castle County.
When the law passed the Delaware
Legislature enabling any corporation
or any person, for that matter, to
build a road thru Delaware, it was
the first time that anything of this
kind had been attempted anywhere,
therefore the bill was not as perfect
as one drawn today, with this prac-
teal example before us, should he.
Some OF the mistakes are given bere,
in order that others who may un-
dertake this form of philanthropy
may profit by it. For instance, un-
der the laws of Delaware which al
low the right Of eminent domain to
trolley roads, when property is con-
demned the suit must be carried thru
and finally adjudicated by the courts
before work can progress on the prop
erty condemned whereas the law
should read, as it does in many
States, that the company or builders
of the road could file a bond salts
factory in form, amount and in any
way required by the court and go
ahead with the work. Otherwise the
road cannot be built quickly be-
cause, without the assurance of
right Of way, no contractor will bid
and, therefore, until after the court S
final decision and condemnation
proceedings, no contract can be let.
Another point to be guarded
against in future enterprises Of this
kind is that, in considering the dam
ages to the property required by the
road, the viewers or commissioners
should take into consideration the
value of the road to the property.
In many instances, peculiar as it
may seem, the owners of land prac-
tically say, eyes, our land has been
increased in value 100 per cent. by
reason Of the road locating there, but
we do not see why we should give
any land for right-of-way because,
if the road requires land in order to
build, this land should be purcbas-
ed. The land owners in four or
five instances acknowledge them
selves the benefit to their property
/ to exceed~100 per cent; but in the
face of this it is necessary to con-
denim them in order to acquire right
of-way at a reasonable figure.
The geological formation Of the
Delaware peninsula IS clay and sand;
in many places the sand is 20, 80
and 40 feet deep, and water is nearly
always reached in less than Is feet.
The country generally speaking is
flat or slightly rolling; a hill of ten
or fifteen feet occurring on the pub
lie roads is invariably known in the
lower counties as the big Hill "
In only one place in Sussex county
does gravel occur in sufficient guam
titles to build three or four miles of
road. This is Of too fine a quality
and so unreliable in deposits that it
cannot be counted on for much assist
ance in the building Of good roads.
No stone formations of any kind oc-
cur in the two lower counties or the
southern part of the upper county Of
Delaware, while in the northern end
of the State, granite is plentiful.
The soil tor farming purposes and
climatic conditions are all that can
be desired, particularly for fruit
growing. From one shipping point
alone sixty-two carloads of straw
berries and sixty-three carloads of
peaches were shipped in one day.
At the two nearest stations to this
point, which are respectively about
four miles north and four miles
south, on the same day probably |
two-thirds as many cars were ship
ped. The land seems better adapted |
for small fruits and vegetables than |
for corn wheat and grass. One is
surprised in going thru lower Della
ware to see the lack of meadows or
fields of any kind from which hay
can be gathered. To 80 per cent of |
theanimals thatlwork on farms fodder
is the only rough feed known, the
blade fodder and top fodder still be-
ing gathered before the corn is ripe |
and cured for rough feed for the farm
animals during the winter.
A strip of land 200 feet wide. ex-
tending from one end of the State to
the other, will be acquired by the
com pany which is building the road. /
While only forty or fifty feet of this
will be used for road building pur-
poses at present, it is hoped that the
whole 200 feet will ultimately be-
came one of the great highways of
the United States. The more great