The Natchitoches enterprise., 1913-01-30
Cost Of Building Roads.

The Highway Department has
completed it's report for 1912.
showing the amount of good roads
built in Louisiana for the year.
This amounts to I27 miles for the
year and 299 miles since the de-
partment was organized four
year ago.
The report shows nine big roads
built or well under wav, the most
important being in Grant parish,
Colfax to Montgomery (which
when completed will be thirty
eight miles long; the East Carroll
highway thirty eight miles;) the
Pointe-a-la-Hache highway, in
Plaquemines parish (thirty-three
miles, and the DE Soto road, from
Mansfield to Logansport. The
total mileage now under construc-
ton is estimated to cost $413, 453,
of which the State will furnish
about one-third and the parishes
two-thirds. Of the 1912 total,
100 miles were constructed by
contract or free labor and 81
miles by convict labor. The lat
ter, which was pronounced salts
factory at first, has latterly been
condemned and is being used to a
much smaller extent than hereto
fore. The building so far
done in Louisiana has been con-
fined largely to Grant, De Soto,
St. Bernard. East Carroll, Iberia,
Franklin, . Natchitoehes9 and St.
John parishes. d2?,i2ifI .. ,ailg 10 10 '1I ana;
! The work of road construction
has made some progress in Louisi-
ana, but not as much as we had
hoped for. It has been found
possible to build good dirt roads,
but the difficulties have been
greater and the cost higher than
we first counted on. The expec-
tation existed when the present
road movement was begun that
we would be able to utilize our
abundant convict labor, and thus
reduce the cost, but this hope has
mot materialized The convict
labor has proved no more salts
factory IN Louisiana than else
where, and the presence of convict
camps in certain parishes engaged
in road construction has not been
agreeable to the nelghbors. More
over, road building is a trade like
most other work, and the convicts
have not proved the best lab9ikn q, !,
1eu it. AS consequence. below
secretary. r thsi}ag siIaafI F Tess, bounced =
'iad,..,.f-.fpant4-Gr~Jly " Of ts Mrs, r,Ust EtFfg I
! mileage.
Nor has the cost been as low as
1
originally estimated. We were
told that good dirt roads in Loulsl.
ana could be constructed for $500
a mile. This may have been the
cost of some of the original work,
but the present figures appear to
be much higher. The New Iberia
and Jeanerette road, which is
petrolithlc. will cost some $500 9
mile. The St. Bernard road o1
shells some $4,000 a mile. The
dirt roads will run from $3.50 6
mile in East Carroll, the cheapest
reported, to 5000 in Franklin,
$140O in De Soto and $4,000 in
Grant, averaging $500 for the
State, or nearly double the origi.
nal figures All of these roads
are built up to the standard, es.
pecial attention being paid to the
matter of drainage, which is of a
substantial character, as we know
that drainage is one of the most
important essentials and difficulties
of good roads in Louisiana.
| The fact that the cost OF con.
struction is so much greater thar
originally estimated, has not dam.
pened the ardor of the friends ot
good roads. The enthusiasm is as
great as ever, and the benefits o1
good roads and the saving IN the
cost of transportation are as freely
admitted 1t is quite evident
however, that financial conditions
will not allow of as heavy con
struction as we had hoped for,
Louisiana will keep on building
good roads and will profit BY
them. but 1t will not be able, be-
cause of lack of funds, to build as
fast as it wants to or as it ought
| to build.-Times-D Democrat.