The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1915-03-25
The Man Who Knows" Answers Taxpayer and Reader
And Makes Statements That Should Awaken Serious Thought

Highway, stretching from New
York to San Francisco. through
3,4OO miles of swamp prairie, DIES
ert and mountain, single fiji
teen mile section in the state of
Wyoming has cost $4,000. But
the work includes, among other
things, three cuts through solid
rock, ranging from One-h half 10
one and a quarter miles long, |
and from 7 10 Is feet in depth, |
with many other smaller cuts aud
corresponding fills. Ii has a
twelve foot roadbed with macada-
mlzed surface, save about two
and half miles, which is solid |
concrete Fulton county furnish
eS no such engineering problems
hut We have known nearly as
much money 10 have been care
leSsly, not TO say criminally, spent
IN building a like distance over
a fine rolling prairie. Hence we
were not figuring on what may
or will. but what could be done
with 100000. And statistics
from many reliable sources will
fully bear out our statements.
We know nothing of the condi-
tions under which Mr.. Cresop, OF
Okolona, Miss, built his roads
which cost an average of $4,000
per mile, but a postal card to the
Massachusetts, Highway Commis-
sion will bring Taxpayer a
copy of their report, and he will
learn that in that State. their II
foot roads. built for the heaviest
traffic, including auto service
which is admitted hardest of all,
and which is many times more
than il will ever be in Fulton
county, and where rock and Ia
Dor costs practically twice the
amount paid here. owing to hign-
er wages and shorter hour eight
hours is their limit of day S
work still, the average cost Is
far below the cost given by your
Mr.. Cresop. Nor do | know what
Mr.. Kelley, the civil engineer Of
Union City, found, but nearer
than either is Dixon County.
Tenn, where they are graveling
% miles of public road, much of
il finished, at contract price Of
81 400 for metaling depth of
six inches after rolling Where
new lines are run and the road
changed, requiring surveying and
grading, the cost reaches around
2.300 per mile. The surveying
costing 500 and the grading frpm
Isl 800 to $1,000, owing TO the
nature of the work
But it is not contemplated that
new lines will be laid IN Fulton
county. The roads are already
fixed and for the most part grad.
ed. We assumed that this work
was done and that the roadbed
was ready for the macadam.
Hence we give prices on maeadam-
izing only, and insist that our
figures were liberal.
The writer has had some ex-
perience as a road builder. has
been somewhat observant of the
work of others, and has given
some time TO the study of road
building problems and the cost
and in but very few instances of
lpublic road construction, and
those few only for very heavy
traffic, with roadbeds of fifteen
feet or more in width and with
; inches or more in depth of
metaling. have we any records Of
carefully supervised, sysiemaitzed|
and practical road building, where
the cost of macadamizing approx.
mated the figures given by Mr.
Cresop, reaching as they do, well
nigh the remarkable cost given
for the expensive piece OF road
way built on the famous Lincoln
Highway, crossing the mountains
on liz way IN tho Pacific IL ~