The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-12-22

Frankfort.-Kentuck was one of
the first states in the union to estab-
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-
ICED roads in 1920.
Prior to 1910, Kentucky had spent
more than $4,000 in the construc-
ton of macadamized roads which
were built on rights of way sixty feet
wide. These roads were located on
light grades and easy curves, and
were graded twentyfour to thirty feet
between bitches. Telford foundations
between sixteen and twenty-four feet
were used with a good macadam sur
face. This work was under the super
vision of a 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 $1,100 to $1,000
per annum. Many of these roads are
yet in 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 to 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-
vive state system of highways.
In 1908 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-
struction and maintenance of public
highways.
A 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 a state road
fund
The department was organized and
Robert C. Terrell was appointed the
first commissioner. The duties of the
department were purely advisory, and
while the counties were required to
request plans, specifications 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 aid
law passed by the General Assembly
of 1914 became operative that the
state was really in a position to lend
material aid to the counties. Although
a great deal was accomplished by the
commissioner and his assistants prior
to- 1910, it was only, as stated above,
advisory, which in many instances it
was hard to get the county officials
to take advantage of the engineering
assistance offered, but in 1914 the gen.
eral assembly passed law levying a
fve-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 no
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 a 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.