Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1916-01-07
KENTUCKY LEADER
IN GOOD ROADS
Began Building Macadamized
Roads as Far Back as the
Eighteenth Century
STATE AID L.W IN 1914
In 1908 the General Assembly of Ken
lucky Passed Constitutional
Amendment Permitting the State to
Lend it's Credit to the Counties for
Roadbullding and Maintenance.

Frankfort.-Kentuck was one OF
the first states in the union to estab-
lish state aid for road construction.
As early as 1910 the General Assembly
of Kentucky provided for the open
ing of roads to the Virginia line and
began the construction of macadam-
ized roads in 1920.
Prior to 1910, Kentucky had spent
more than 100000 in the cOnstruc'
ton of macadamiZed roads which
we're built on rights of way sixty feet
wide. These roads were located on
light grades and easy curves, and
we're graded twenty-four to thirty feet
between bitches. Telford foundations
between sixteen and twenty-fOur feet
were used with good macadam sur
face. This work was under the super
vision OF state engineering depart
ment, consisting of a state highway
engineer, at a salary of $4,000 per
year, with a corps of assistants at
salaries ranging from S1,100 to $4,000
per annum. Many of these roads are
yet in a splendid state of preservation,
and are rendering substantial service
to the communities through which
they pass.
However, the policy of internal i'm
provement was discontinued prior to
1850, owing to the financial condition
of the treasury, and a change in po-
litical parties, and it was not until
1908 that any attempt was made to re-
vive a state system of highways.
In 1908 the General Assembly of
Kentucky passed a constitutional
| amendment permitting the state to
| lend it's credit to the counties for road
building, and to provide for the con
struction and maintenance of public
highways.
A highway department was estab
| lished to consist of the Commissioner
| of Public Roads and such assistants
as the Governor might deem advisa
ole, with an appropriation of not tC
( exceed $4,000 per annum from the
automobile license tax which had beer
I accruing from 1915 as a state ROAD
fund.
The department was organized ant
Robert C. Terrell was appointed the
first commissioner. The duties of the
department were purely advisory, an(
while the counties were required tt
request plans, specifications and esti
| mates of cost for the road and bridge
work, which exceeded $500 in cost
they were not compelled to use the
plans and specifications thus prepared
It was not until after the state aiC
law passed by the General Assembly
I of 1914 became operative that thu
state was really in a position to LENT
material aid to the counties. Although
great deal was accomplished by thu
commissioner and his assistants priO
10 1910, it was only, as stated above
advisory, which in many instances
was hard to get the county official
to take advantage of the engineering
assistance offered, but in 1914 the ger
eral assembly passed a law levying
fve-cent tax on each 800 worth of tax
able property in the state of Kentucky
The law further provided that tn
money should be distributed to tn
counties based upon the amount o
money levied and collected in eac
county for roadbuilding, and that n
| county should receive in any one yea
more than two per cent of the. tota
road fund. The department immt
diately set to work in the spring Q
1915 to secure the cooperation of tn
counties in building a system of road
as laid out in the bill passed by tn
General Assembly, which provide
that the roads should connect up tn
county seat of each county of the Con
monwealth with the county seats
the adjoining counties by the mos
direct and practical route, and tn
county seats of border counties wit
the state line on the most direct an
practical routes leading from sal
county seats to the county seats
. the adjoining counties in the adjaceI
states.
| Ubv NOT nati0naliZe highways 1