The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-11-15
An Opinion On
Road Material
Worth Reading


roads for Pinellas county before |
certainly favor the proposition to
build 73 miles of them now said
Ed. T. Lewis of this city recently
when asked for an opinion on the
subject. He had just returned from
an automobile trip covering 1l,25S
miles, that took him to the Pacific
coast.
Brick Roads Are Permanent
''In travelling over all kinds of
roads since leaving St. Petersburg
last summer | found two types of
roads that could be classed as per-
Tanent They were concrete and
brick, and concrete roads are prac-
tically prohibitive in cost of con-
struction for this community. There
is no question but that the concrete
roads of California are great high
ways, but they should be. as they
cost between $4,000 and $4,000 a
mile.
No Sand-Asphalt Roads.
Right now | would like to correct
statement made to me today that
there were miles and miles of sand
asphalt and sand-oil roads in Cali
fornia. The members of our party
travelled through California to Mex
leo and with the exception of four
miles of sand-oil roads which were
then being replaced with concrete,
found no roads of that description
in the whole state.
Need of Improved Roads.
The state of California is building
concrete roads to attract the tour
lists and it certainly behooves this
community. as well as every other
tourist community in Florida, to do
likewise if we ever expect to get
good investing class of tourists in
this county. | have never had that
fact more clerely demonstrated than
j.! was during the trip which we
have just finished.
Improvement is Urgent. ~.
Another item which we have over
looked is the absence. of a map of
this county in an Automobile Blue
Book. We cannot get in the route
book until we build permanent brick
roads, and the longer we delay in
building a system of highways over
the entire county, just that long will
we lose the revenue derived from
having hundreds of automobile
tourists come to our section of the
state.
One Instance Cited
At Live Oak a few nights ago we
encountered eight automobile parties
from the north, and when we sug-
gested that they come to st. Peters,
burg, we were told that they had
beard of the city but did not know
how to get there as no routes lead
ing to this point were shown, and
their judgment was that if the roads
We're good, maps of them would GER
tainly be found in the guide
Pinellas County Roads
You may say for me also that
with two exceptions the roads in
Pirellas county at present are in
worst condition than any | have en-
countered in any section of the
State of Florida, and i believe | have
probably travelled over as many
miles of Florida roads as any other
resident of the county.
To Work for Bond Issue.
| am glad to be back again for
| several. reasons. one of which is to
not only vote for the road bond is
sue but to advise my friends to do
likewise. | wish it were possible for
every man who is opposing this
bond issue to take the trip we have
had this summer, as | feel certain
that the need of a system of brick
roads over the entire county would
surely be apparent to him. We need
them for our own good from every
standpoint of revenue and invest
/