Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1915-12-16
KENTUCKY LEADER
IN GOOD ROADS
Began Building Macadamized
Roads as Far Back as the
Eighteenth Century
STATE AID Law IN 1914
In 1908 the General Assembly of Ken
lucky Passed a Constitutional
Amendment Permitting the State to
Lend it's Credit to the Counties for
Roadbuildine and Maintenance.

Frankfort Kentucky was one oil
the first states in the union to estaD'
lish state aid for road construction
AS early as 1910 the General Assembly
of Kentucky provided for the open
ing of roads to the Virginia line and
began the construction Of macadam'
lied roads in 1920.
Prior to 1910, Kentucky had spent
more than S2,000,O00 in the construc'
ton of macadamized roads which
were built on rights Of way sixty feet
wide These roads we're located on
light grades and easy curves, and
were graded twenty-four to thirty feet
between bitches. Telford foundations
between sixteen and twenty-four feet
were used with good macadam sur
face. This work was under the super
vision of state engineering depart
ment, consisting of state highway
engineer, at a salary of $4,000 per
year, with a corps of assistants at
salaries ranging from $1,1OO to $500
per annum. Many of these roads are
yet in a splendid state of preservation,
and are rendering substantial service
to the communities through which
they pass.
However, the policy of internal i'm
provement was discontinued prior to
1850, owing 20 the financial condition
of the treasury, and change in po'
litiCal parties, and it was not until
1908 that any attempt was made to re-
yiye a state system Of highways.
In 1903 the General Assembly of
Kentucky passed constitutional
amendment permitting the state to
lend its credit to the counties for road.
building, and to provide for the con-
Etruction and maintenance of public
highways.
4 highway department was estab.
lished to consist Of the Commissioner
of Public Roads and such assistants
as the Governor might deem advisa
BILE, with an appropriation of not to
exceed $4,000 per annum from the
automobile license tax which had been
accruing from 1910 as q state road
fund.
The department was organized and
Robert G. Terrell was appointed the
first commissioner The duties of the
department were purely advisory, and
while the counties were required to
aaliiG - IS. and esti-
mates OF cost for the road and bridge
work, which exceeded $500 in cost
they were not compelled to use the
plans and specifications thus prepared
1t was not until after the state ait
law passed by the General Assembly
OF 1914 became operative that the
state was really In a position to lent
material aid to the counties. Although
i great deal was accomplished by the
commissioner and his assistants prior
to 1910, 1t was only, as stated above
advisory, which in many instances i
was hard TO get the county officials
to take advantage of the engineering
assistance offered, but in 1914 the gen
eral assembly passed a law levying a
hve-cent tax ON each 500 worth of tax
able property in the state of Kentucky
The law further provided that the
money should be distributed to the
counties based upon the amount OF
money levied and collected in each
county for bodybuilding, and that nc
county should receive in any one year
more than two per cent OF the total
road fund. The department imme
diately set to work In the spring OF
1915 TO secure the cooperation OF the
counties in building system of roads
as laid out in the bill passed by the
General Assembly, which provided
that the roads should connect up the
county seat Of each county of the Com.
monwealth with the county seats OF
the adjoining counties by the most
direct and practical route, and the
county seats of border counties with
the state line on the most direct and
practical routes leading from said
county seats to the county seats Of
the adjoining counties in the adjacent
| states.