Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-05-14
Pacific Highway
Viewed From Afar
portland Oregonian.) }

NfOTJldnQ OreSOnlan.D
The Pacific Highway is being laid
down in Jackson county now at the
rate OF 500 feet day. The start was
made about two weeks ago at Central
Point and by June l the road will be
open to the public as far as Medford.
A doctor never took greater care
with the composition of his medicine
than Assistant State Highway Engi-
neer Kittredge is taking with the
composition of this first section of
the highway. Robert Edwards, chem
ical engineer of Portland, makes an
analysis of every shovelful before the
big crane deposits it. Exhaustive eX-
periments have been made with the
Jackson county granite from Tolo
and the crushed boulders from Derby,
to determine which is the better ma
terial; the precise proportion of rock
and cement necessary to give the
maximum wear has been put in form
ula; the county court and the state
highway engineers office are bend
ing every effort to make the first unit
of the Pacific Highway pavement in
the state of Oregon the best that sci
ence and care can construct.
1t may be mentioned here that the
county court is building this portion
of the road. All the contractors bids
were thrown out as eXorbitant. Mr..
Kittredge and County Judge Tou
Velle decided they would build not
only better but cheaper road.
At the present rate this road will
cost about $4,000 a mile. 1t will
be a 16-foot pavement with a con-
crete base y Inch minimum and a
concrete wearing surface ~ inches
in thickness. There will be a four
foot shoulder on either side, strongly
reinforced to prevent chipping. When
it is considered that this road is built
upon the ruins of a macadam high
way constructed three years ago at
a cost of $4,000 a mile some idea
of the saving in cost and the improve
ment in construction can be obtained.
Meanwhile excavation work con-
tinues in the Siskiyous. Sweeny
Bros. of Portland have the contract.
| Three camps have been built and
about so men, 100 head of horses
and mules. and a steam shovel are at
work removing the trees, the thou
sands OF tons OF rock and dirt, con-
structing the fills and bridge ap-
proaches which will be necessary for
this automobile boulevard over the
Siskiyous into California.
An important change recently has
been made which will materially re-
duce the cost of this portion of the
highway. Instead of 16-foot pave
ment as originally planned, there will
be only an eight-foot pavement with
an eight-foot dirt road on either side.
This will answer every purpose of an
auto speedway and at the same time
teams will find the dirt road much
better for hauling.
This excavation work will be COM
pleted by September l and the surface
will be laid early in the spring OF
1915 in time for the tourist travel
beginning in June of the exposition
year.
As soon as the Medford-Central
Point road is completed work will be
started on the road from Medford
south to Ashland and on to the base
of the Siskiyou grade at Barron. II
is expected to have this stretch of ap.
proximately % miles in a hard-sur'
faced boulevard by November l, 1914
Charles H. Purcell of Salem, asso.
ciated with Major Bowlby, is now
overseeing the Central Point con
struction under the direction of En-.
SluecI hlltItuSe, uul WITCH tNClS'
thing is running smoothly he will re.
turn orth and a superintendent will
be selected.
This road work, together with the
construction OF the 100000 cement
plant at Gold Hill, has been a great
boon to the valley and has eliminated
the unemployed problem so trouble
some in other localities. Local work.
men have been engaged exclusively
local materials have been used, and
the roads when completed will be q
monument to local enterprise and the
resource and progressiveness Of the
Rogue River Valley.
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