Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-07-29
COST OF GOOD ROADS.
What Road Improvement Costs in the
United States.

last year on public roads in the United
States, according to statistics prepared by
the United States department OF agricul-
ture. In 1904 the total was only $79,000,-
600. In nine years, therefore, the increase
has been over $50 per cent.
This awakening on the part OF the
country to the Importance of good roads
1 has, experts say, been due in great
measure to the principle of state aid to
counties and other local communities.
New Jersey began the movement in 1891
when it passed its state highway law.
Massachusetts and Vermont followed a
year later, but for the most part the other
states are slow to move. In 1904 only fit,
teen had state highway departments; to-
day there are only six that have not. In
1918 the individual states appropriated
total Of s3S, 755, 0sS to supplement local ex-
penditures.
| The value OF this state aid is, however,
not to be measured by the figures alone,
for the bulk of the money comes, and al
ways must come, from the counties and
townships. Thus, in 1912, the cash out
| lay by counties, districts and townships,
|
1918 are not yet available, but it is safe to
estimate the sum at approximately $751;
100000. To this must be added some SIS
100000 to represent the value OF the labor
contributed instead Of cash in districts
where this practice prevails. Last year,
therefore, local communities contributed
in round numbers, one hundred and
sixty-six millions of dollars, as against
appropriations from state treasures OF
S3S, 755, 0SS. The true Importance OF this
thirty eight millions lies in the fact that
it means supervision Of the expenditure
OF considerable portion OF the vast sum
OF two hundred millions.
| When each county built as it chose and
when it chose, the services of trained en-
| gineers were usually out of the question.
There was little opportunity to test in
novations, little advance in the science of
road building, and there was also difficulty
in arousing county individually to do its
best to improve conditions within its own
| limits. State aid has changed all this.
The best engineering skill is available for
all works of Importance, there is CO.
operation and constant stimulus to
further improvements. The money con-
tributed by the states does not only build
more roads, it makes better those that
other money builds.
| At the present time there are in the
United States 2O,741 miles of roads i'm
proved either wholly or in part by state
aid. This is nearly the mileage of the
French routes nationales, the system OF
great national highways which is the
envy of every civilized nation. The routes
nationales are, Of course, only small part
OF the total mileage of France, where
practically every road Of any Importance
is an improved road, and France is a
vastly smaller country, both in area and in
population, than the United States, so that
this comparison is not, in itself, very
fiattering to our progressiveness. 1t
shows, however, that we have at least
made beginning. OF the 2,226,s 42 miles
of roads in the United States, .223, ia miles,
or approximately 10 per cent, are classed
as improved.
To improve the remaining so per cent.
may well seem big job. 1t is, in fact,
only made posi- BILE because the work
really pays for itself. From material
gathered by the United States department
of agriculture, it is now possible to prove
not only that good roads are a profitable
investment, but to determine exactly
what dividends they pay. An investi-
gator assigned to this problem in any
given locality first ascertains the extent
OF the territory that is tributary to any
main road, much as one might ascertain
the territory tributary to some river.
The next step is an accurate estimate OF
the total products of this territory; SO
much grain, SO much tobacco, so much
garden truck, etc., etc. VI this quantity
a certain portion is consumed on the farm;
the rest is shipped over the road in ques-
ton. The whole calculation can then be
checked by Investigators at the shipping
point to which the road leads. In general
it has been found that the two methods
yield much the same information-the
total amount OF produce hauled over the
road.
Next, the length of the average haul is
calculated, the size of the load permitted
by the character of the road ascertained,
With those fact before him, the investi-
gator is now able to state positively the
cost of hauling ton of produce on that
road, to express in terms of these "ton-
miles" the freight traffic on the road, and,
finally, the total cost to the community
served by the road of hauling its goods to
market. Armed with these data, it is
EASY to decide how much money can be
proftably spent in improving the road
and what are the returns that the invest
ment yields to the community.
These returns are of various kinds.
First and foremost is the reduction in the
actual cost of hauling, the plain fact that
it takes less time and labor to haul load
over good road than over poor one.
Less obvious is the effect of improved
roads in increasing the total output OF
community In the case of one county in