The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-04-17
GOOD ROADS
(By H S. Moreland, Highway Con
sulting Engineer.)
CONTINUED from "Wednesday. J

continued from Wednesday
Another reason for a county max
ing its initial bond issue we'll up to
the limit is the difficulty of secur-
ing a second issue. It has been said
that the best argument for good
roads is a good road and while this
argument is convincing to the man
not living on a good road, it is NOT
convincing to the man that does live
live on a good road who is asked to
increase his tax rate by voting for
good road for the other fellow
Bond issues have been defeated more
than once by this line of reasoning.
A sensible procedure for county
contemplating the improvement OF
it's highways, one that Is, in the
main, the procedure of the we'll or
ganized, highly developed highway
commissions of other sections, is as
follows: A competent highway en-
gineer is employed whose first work
is to compile road map of the coun-
tv on which is shown the existing
roads and their character, cities,
towns and farm houses, the whole
designed to intelligently show the
needs of the county as to highway
transportation facilities. This re-
uuires no elaborate surveys. The en-
gineer with or 5 men, can collect
the data and produce the map in 30
days time. While the map is in
process of being made it is the duty
of the proper county officials to de-
termine the size of the bond issue de-
pendent on the ability Of the coun-
ty to pay. They should de-
termine the gross amount that can
be obtained from the road tax and
apportion it to the three items of in
terest on bonds, sinking fund charges
and maintenance costs, the latter for
the roads not to be improved as well
as the new ones to be built. This
method will give quite definite in
formation as to the size of the bond
issue.
After the completion of the road
map the engineer, in collaboration
with the county road officials, should
Law out complete system of roads
covering the entire county This is
a matter of nice judgment and
should be done with reference to the
needs of every section Of the county.
1t should be remembered that roads
leading from population centers out
into the rural districts give great
err benefit to a greater number of
people than roads merely connecting
one city with another. A hundred
miles of roads, split up into ten Sec
tions, radiating from city. serve
a greater number of people than
two straight away stretches of so
miles each. A Duluth to Miami
highway sounds quite imposing but
roads are primarily for the short
haul from the farm to the city.
1t is not supposed that the entire
system will be built out of the pro-
ceeds of the first bond issue but the
advantage of laying out complete
system is that by following it each
road built is co-ordinated with fu-
| ture work and is part of system.
Next comes the matter of decid-
ing what roads to build first. Any
well designed system of roads nat
urally resolves itself into main ar
teries of travel fed by roads of les
ser Importance and the more impor-
tant roads should receive first con-
sideration simply because of their
greater traffic.
The question of what roads to
build and the total mileage to build
is so closely interviewer with the
question of costs as to be impossible
of solution without full and complete
information on this subject. SO that
before this matter can be definitely
settled, the engineer should collect
data on all available materials and
their cost and present to the officials
his findings, together with complete
estimates of the cost of building diff
ferent types of roads, as an aid to
them in determining what roads to
build, of what to build them and
how wide to build them.
1t is right at this point of decid-
ing of what to build the roads that
the ill-advised action already men
toned, occurs. Counties have jumped