The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1915-10-21
Representative of Office of Pub
lie Roads Says Definite Sys-
tenn is Necessary
PROFIT BY MISTAKES OF
OTHERS is HIS ADVICE
Kind Of Improvement Must be Deter
mined by the Class of Traffic
II Will Accommodate

That road construction will not and
cannot be carried on successfully and
economically in Benton or any other
county, until complete road sys-
tenn has been devised, was one point
made most emphatic by Charles Han
ford Kendall, u. S. senior highway
engineer, who addressed meeting
at the Commercial club rooms Satur-
day evening.
Mr.. Kendall, who is giving a series
of lectures in the Walla Walla, Column
bia and Yakima valleys, has been sent
into this territory by the Office Of
public roads for the purpose of as
.sisting local authorities in solving
the road building problem. Mr.. Ken
dali opened his lecture with a general
statement as to the value of good
roads in any community and followed
with some suggestions as to the best
methods to be adopted in this dis
trict. During the evening he showed
several interesting stereopticon scenes
of roads and road building both in
America and abroad. The scenes in
cluded the famous Apian Way Of
the Romans, the road leading to the
Pyramids in Egypt, the scenic noun
tain Highways of Switzerland and
many others equally interesting.
Sunday morning the engineer was
taken over the roads to Finley and
Richland and gave many suggestions
regarding the repair and mainten-
ance of these highways. sa ae
At the meeting Saturday evening
Mr.. Kendall said in part: o
GAS we know, eighty to ninety per
cent of the roads of any state, with
a few exceptions, are earth roads
without hard or improved surface.
And yet these earth roads are of the
utmost local Importance to the rural
districts and to the farmers who have
to use them and who pay their quota
of taxes for the upkeep of such roads.
During the last twenty years there
has been a remarkable development
in road building-yet an examination
of reports and available information
regarding maintenance land repairs
of our roads give but little definite
data upon the problem Of earth roads.
The solution of this problem of the
upkeep of earth roads is what we in
the Inter Mountain states are the
most interested in.
Estates often, and counties, fre-
quenly, borrow money upon twenty,
thirty, forty and sometimes fifty year
bonds with which to build roads but
fail to provide for the upkeep, so that
long before the bonds are liquidated
the roads, as improved roads, have all
but disappeared and have to be re-
built at an enormous outlay. Whereas
had proper provision been made at the
beginning for some form of adequate
maintenance the roads would at all
times be visible asset and credit to
the investment.
Railroads, street railways, trans
mission companies and other public
utilities provide, as matter of busi-
ness principle, from five to ten per
cent of the original cost of plant as
an amount to be expended for up
keep, repairs and replacement. This
provision is as important for our
highways as for other investments
or liabilities.
"Since the birth of the good road
movement in the states in the early
nineties most everybody has been mis-
led by the idea that road construc-
tion was a permanent Improvement.
1t has only been in recent years that
the people have begun to realize that
this form of permanent Improvement
has to be sustained by proper main
tenance.
Auto Has Stimulated Building
"The advent of the automobile and
the rapidly increasing and universal
use of this mode Of travel and trans
portation has stimulated greater
interest in the proper care of roads
CONTINUED on page seven)