The copper era and Morenci leader., 1915-10-29
COLE CREEK ROAD !. COMPLETED THIS
 WEEK
HOyt 6 Merrill, Contractors, Will on Monday Turn New Stretch of Road Over to Board of Supervisors for Acceptance.


 One of the most scenic and best constructed pieces of road work in Arizona is that portion of the Cliff ton-Duncan highway between the head of Wards Canyon and Cole Creek, which was completed on Sum- day last by Hoyt & Merrill, contrac. tors, and which will be turned over to tre county subject to the acceptance of the Board of Supervisors on next Monday.
 Thursday morning an Era represen- tative, accompanied by Hoyt & Mer- Till, contractors, Supervisor Await, and Engineer Hutchins, autoed over the new road and at Cole Creek were joined by Chairman Witt,of the board of Supervisors, who in conjunction with MT. Await made an inspection of that part of the road which has been completed by Hoyt & Merrill and the acceptance of which will be Board on Monday.
 Few people realize the amount of work necessary and the cost per mile for the construction of roads in this section of the country and the majority of the public are ignorant of the difficulties to be overcome by the engineers and contractors in building substantial roads suitable for all classes of traffic. However, a trip over the recently completed road will convince the most skeptical that Greenlee county has the finest and most substantially built roads in the state.
 The contract of Hoyt & Merrill call ed for the construction of 6.2 miles of road from the top of Wards Can yon to the mesa above Cole Creek, the time of construction to be limited to November 1st, next, however, the road has been completed week earlier than the specified time and had it not been for addition of filling at Buzzard Roost canyon and extra graveling across the mesa between Cole Creek and Buzzard Roost the road would have been finished approx imately the 18th of this month, there by beating the time limit by two weeks.
 L. " Hoyt was in active charge of the work, while Resident Engineer Rowe was on the job with w. R. Hutchins supervising the detailed work for the contractors. S. F. Await was foreman of the grade work and to these men belong the credit of the construction of as pretty a piece of road work as there is in Arizona. Engineer Rowe made the preliminary surveys under the direction of County Engineer S. c. Redd
 The work on this part of the road was started on the 18th of July thus taking a trif1e over three months for the construction of the six miles On an average of 3S teams with drivers and 70 road men were employed dur ing this time, and the work was fin ished without an accident The men received better wages for this class of work than is paid anywhere in the state and no dissatisfaction was at any time manifested. Water to the amount of between 25O0 and 5000 gallons per day was hauled a dis tance of three miles from the Boyles ranch for camp purposes.
 The road itself is in most excellent condition from Wards Canyon until within couple of miles of Cole Creek. This is accounted for from the fact that the Clifton end of the road has been visited by good rains which have packed the road bed and with good rain at the opposite end the foundation will be in as good condition. The six miles and frac. tion built by Hoyt & Merrill contains no grade over 10 per cent and in that distance approximately 2 miles has been cut off from the route covered by the old road thus effecting a con siderable saving in time and dis tance. In the six mile stretch there are four steel bridges with rock and concrete abutments while all drains are protected at either end by mason ry and concrete approaches, thereby eliminating a great deal of the danger of washing and caving due tc storms. The first bridge. is encoun tered over Guthrie canyon, while tht second, 60 feet long, spans a wash al tRattlesnake. A 40 foot bridge spans Buzzard Roost and the last is 6( foot bridge at Cole Creek. Betwee1 Buzzard Roost and Cole Creek the read was widened to 20 feet and i: well graded, being one of the mos