The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-12-24
RODERICK 0. MATHESON, EDITOR
Roads, Cane and
Government
FRIDAY MORNING,
DECEMBER "a, 1915.

\ tiles of road materials used in this Territory
is lacking. From the very beginning roads have
been constructed according to the personal whim
or fancy of one or another engineer group of
engineers group of supervisors and contractors.
There is 10 settled road building policy today
any more than there was twenty years ago. Ha-
wai has taken the advice OF the best local talent
and has from time to time imported engineering
talent, and as a result our roads a hodge
podge.
We know, in some instances, the initial cost of
certain stretches of roadway. There are also
figures on maintenance in some instances. But
to date there has been comprehensive correla-
ton of traffic to cost of construction and main
tenance covering the roads and streets of any
political subdivision within this Territory.
The traffic the road has to bear is the final test
of quality. Bitulithic has stood up we'll on Fort
street. fairly we'll King street in front of the
Hooking building, and not at all we'll on Queen
at the River street end
Queen street from Fort to River gets the hard
est usage of any road or street in Hawaii King
street from Fort to the depot comes second; Mer-
chant street and Hotel third, and Fort street
fourth in number of vehicles and tonnage trans
ported over them. In these stretches of roadway
there has been systematic or scientific study
correlate the relationship between materials used
and service rendered.
Any shareholder in the Rapid Transit or the
Oahu Railway and Land Company can find Oft
from the companys books the cost of construc
ton and cost of repair and maintenance of any
particular mile of track either system, the ton
mage transported over it, the probable life of the
road bed and the profits earned or losses sustain
ed through it's operation.
Can the citizens of Honolulu or any county in
Hawaii get the same line of information in re-
gard to their property, the public highways?
The last Legislature made appropriation for
the construction of various types of roadway at
the College of Hawaii and work has already been
started on this pro ject. The road planned to
bridge the gap between Male and Metcafe streets
will be built in FIVE or more sections-concrete
surfaced with asphalt; coral rock; asphalt mac
adam oil macadan, and bitulithc. The College
is also building half mile or so of Telford rock
and gravel roadways.
This experiment will test out the lasting quail
tiles of these materials under light traffic so that
ten years hence exact data will be available. But
it is pity that so little has been learned from
all the millions that have been spent in road build
ing even in the last twenty years, in this Terri
tory as whole.
If a corporation owned the roads and streets
anu uScu tHelll lot plOHt, expecting 10 make eaCn
block or each half-mile pay for itself on an in
vestment basis does any sane person imagine
that the corporations engineers would fail to cor
relate materials and method of construction to
the duty each stretch of roadway has to perform
1t would pay each political subdivision in this
Territory to make such scientific traffic survey
before spending additional millions of loan funds
and direct taxes on building roads, Our
business men are given to boasting of the ad-
vanced position they hold in commercial lines, in
sugar production, in sanitation and in dozen
other fields. In the conduct of government these
same business men leave too much to guess work.
If Hawaii managed its sugar plantations as it
builds its roads our entire population would walk
clothed in rags Why not turn new leaf
January l. 1916, and change it the other way about
build roads grow cane, to get all the
profits in the business?