New Ulm review., 1913-10-29
FINDS CONCRETE BEST

ley, Of the State Road Commission.
the solution Of the road problem is
the concrete road. The commission
is experimenting very extensively
with this type Of road and thus far
the experiment has proved success
full.
Engineer Shirley has long been an
enthusiastic advocate Of the concrete
road and when he was road engineer
for Baltimore county, he built long
stretch of it in a boggy location, in
which no other road had ever held,
and the road is in splendid condition
today, with comparatively little signs
Of wear, and no evidence Of giving
away. .,..r.
Soon after he became head Of the
roads commission Chairman Weller
began the investigation of concrete
for road-building purposes, and the
more he studied the propositin.. the
more he liked it. !: u december of Of
last year :.e and Engineer Shirley
vent to Wayne county, Michigan, to
examine the roads there. The auto
mobile traffic on the Wayne county
concrete roads is probably heavier
than on any roads Of the same length
in the country, due to the fact that
Detroit is q center of the automobile
industry and all the factories in De-
troit use these roads on which to
give the machines their road tests
In addition there is heavy wagon
traffic on them.
Wayne county began the building
of concrete roads about five years
ago, and has improved on them every
year since. Chairman Weller 1aid
the first roads built, notwithstanding
the tremendous traffic upon them, are
still in excellent condition, although
the more improved roads are better.
Wayne county is gradually rebuild
ing all its main roads with concrete
The facts learned in Wayne county
made both Messrs. Weller and Shir-
ley more firmly convinced of the
desirability of concrete for roads,
and as the commission agreed with
them a. number of contracts have
been given out for this type. One
piece of the road on the Washington
boulevard at Bladensburg, at a,'cost
of about $4,000 mile, is in splendid
condition and shows: no signs of
wear. Contracts for concrete roads
aggregating 80 miles have been
given out at an average price; of
approximately $1,000 mile. They
are being built in Baltimore, Carroll,
Cecil, Charles, Caroline, Montgomery,
Prince Georges, Somerset, St. Mary's
Talbot and Worcester counties, and
vary in length from the mile and
half that is being built in Baltimore
county, to the nine and quarter
miles for which contracts have been
awarded in Prince Georges.
In sections where stone roads are
almost prohibitive on account of the
cost of the stone, but where. sand
and gravel are found, such as in
southern Maryland and on the Eas-
tern Shore, concrete has solved the
problem of getting hard roads, and
wherever they have been built the
users of them are enthusiastic.
Moreover, in some recent contracts
it was shown that the price of roads
of this type are lessening while the
stone roads are becoming higher.
Put in competition with macadam,
the concrete roads were the lower
priced. The reason for this is that
much of the work of building con-
crete roads can be done with ma
chinery, and it takes fewer men than
for macadam road of the same
length. With the increasing difficult
ty of obtaining labor this is a big
item for the contractor and, more
over, in t he building of concrete
roads, there is less tendency toward
the unsettling of the labor conditions
on the farms.
The advantage of the concrete road
is that it is practically dustless, that
it is easily repaired, and that when
it is given a slight bituminous coat
ing becomes almost like an asphalt
street in the city. Ruts do not form,
it can be laid in wet and swampy
places, where macadam road would
soon go to pieces on account of the
instability of the foundation. They
are the only roads affected by auto
mobile traffic. On account of their
wearing qualities they are cheaper at
the same price per mile than maca-
dam, according to Engineer Shirley,
but notwithstanding this, the cost
per mile is coming down.
Thus far, the contracts which the
Maryland Roads Commission have
given out for concrete roads have
specified road better than those of
Wayne county, and probably a more
substantial road than was actually
needed. The reason for this was be-
cause concrete roads in Maryland are
still an experiment, and the commits
sion felt that it was better to err on
Tho cofo c;Io r. onv orro, ho v,,oro