The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-30
COST OF HIGHWAY
 MAINTENANCE
Importance Of Road Mainten-
 ance Where Highways Are Built With Borrowed Money.

washington, Dec 30s-That high ways constructed with borrowed money should be strictly maintained, is the Keynote of a. chapter in De- partment of Agriculture bulletin NO 136, dealing with highway bonds. It has not been customary Tor offlclals to face frankly the cost of the main senance and repair of bond-butlt highways at the time the bonds are issued and before construction begins In fact, the authors of the bulletin point out. in the majority of cases where bonds have been issued by To- cal authorities there has been no pro- vision whatever for maintaining the roads when built. This is perhaps the greatest defect in the method of building highways by 1ssusing bonds
 Maintenance. the highway experts of the Department point out, is ne cessary in order to insure to the com
 munity the maximum economic ser vice by the road. and also to preserve the investme ent The cost of main tenance and repairs must, therefore, be studied at the outset In the ab- sence of general data. the reports on maintenance from States which have 1 interest to county officers preparing | to issue road building bonds.
 The following opinions as to main tenance cost represent the results of careful anallses of State highway re- ports, as well as much first-hand in formation gathered by the Depart ment's specialists:
 Well-contsructed gravel roads will som etimes sustain several years of traffic without showing marked de- terioration, even when there has been no maintenance. Such roads some times improve during the second sea son; more frequently, however they
 ST,4 0r-f T7o nj c holes. It can not be expected that the average life of a gravel surface will be greater than that of a maca- dam surface. The average interval for resurfacing macadam roads is be- | tween six and seven years. If a sum cost of the gravel surface itself is provided for renewals at six-year i'm tervals, it should be estimated at from $150 to $250 per mile per year. If $30 is then allowed for annual dragging and small repairs, the total annual cost of repair and maintenace of gravel roads would be from $18O to $280 per mile. The annual cost of strict maintenance is sometimes below $50. In Bennington County, Vermont, during 1912, ITS miles of [ gravel roads were maintained at a cost of $2o.70 per mile. The an- nuaI cost of maintenance and repair on sand-elay roads, including all ne cessary resurfacing at periodic in tervals, should not be fixed at less than 10 per cent of the original cost
 The cost of repair and maintenance of water bound macadam roads has been determined with considera hIe exactness from Massachusetts figures and checked by resurfacing charges in other states and in Germany
 From $10o to $12S per year ordinar- fly pays for necessary small repairs 2 f<1T41 1SA
 etc, and from $400 to $425 per yea1 l Is the necessary annual charage fo1 resurfacing at periods varying from six to seven years. The sum of s52E l per mile, on an average, should therefore absolutely maintain maca.
 dam roads if changes and increases
 of traffic are not excessive It mus
 be understood, however, that ir many instances where macadam suf feed for the volume and character O,