The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1914-10-02
.AINTAINING THE ROADS
10 The Good Roads Advocates In

10 The Good Roads Advocates In
Tennessee;
A few years ago l became inter
ested in the cause of Good Roads IN
Tennessee, and it has been my privi-
Iege to participate in good road
meetings throughout the entire
state. In forty-nine counties in Ten
nessee sufficient sentiment has been
created and enthusiasm aroused to
cause the people to vote bonds to
the amount of nearly eleven million
dollars for the building of public
roads. 1t was my privilege to speak
III over half of these counties, urg-
ing the people to vote in favor of
issuing bonds. | have never ceased
congratulating the people for the
splendid results they have obtained.
Just recently | have visited
number of these counties for the
purpose of seeing, and driving over
the roads which have been construc-
ted. These trips convinced me that
in the location, surveys and con-
Struction, the work has been we'll
done. In some counties it would
have been impossible to have gotten
better results. The grades were re-
DIT ced to a minimum, the location
was ideal and the construction was
.ong modern ideas of road building.
But to my mind, there is a seri-
problem confronting the people
these counties, and the object of
,m4a open letter is to set the people
to thinking. The important ques-
ton now is that of maintenance. How
are we going to maintain these roads
and keep them in good repair after
we have built them?
Experience has taught us that no
public road is going to remain in
good condition without care and at
tention. The continual use of the
read, coupled with the rains, will
soon begin to have effect, and soon
er or later, say within four or five
years, the good pike road will more
nearly resemble the once ordinary |
country road.
What we most need at the pre-
sent time is a system of road main
tenance for each county which has
constructed pike roads, and the
GOOD road advocates and county
courts would do well to take this
matter up and work out some plan
whereby the roads can be preserved
for continual future use.
"The stitch in time" method is the
correct one. 1t would be far better
to save a certain per cent of the ORR
ginal money voted for construction
purposes and utilize it in keeping
the roads in good repair. 1t is re-
~ rkable how easy it is to keep
10 DIS built after they are once COM
PIE ed. The secret of it is to fix the
break as soon as it occurs. Delegate
4 ~, l,,4v 10 nff N |
the county who will see that no un-
precedent deterioration is permitted.
In my recent visit to these coun-
ties, noticed bad breaks in the I
roads, which, if taken in time, would I
have been prevented by the use of a
few shovels of dirt and stone, where /
as now it will require quite an out {
lay of both time and money. And
besides the waste of money in build
ing expensive roads without provid-
ing any means of maintenance, it
gives the croker, the fellow who c
nays no taxes, and who hauls half
a load instead of a full load, a
chance to knock the cause of good i
Dads and pronounce the building t
+ public roads by bond issues a t
failure and waste of the peoples \
lhoney. .
No remedy is offered in this let /
ter, but if it will cause the people f
TO think of the Importance of this j
matter, many of these counties will i
evolve some system of their own f
which will solve the problem. The $
cause of good roads has progressed
in Tennessee, and those of US who
are so enthusiastically interested T
want to see the people get one humid
red cents of service for every dollar
expended. i
Yours for good roads in Tennessee '
C. C. Gilbert, Secretary, \
tennessee Automobile and Good t
Roads Association. Il