The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-21
Charles J. Bennett, Highway Commissioner, Lets His Work Speak For Him.
CNew Haven Register-)

which little is heard except in a gen eral way is the state highway depart ment. This department expends an nually a larger sum than any other state office, employs a greater number of men and is more intimately ac- quainted with the town fathers of Connecticut's 168 towns than is any other. To the township the highway department is never-ending source of speculation and comment. What it will do, what it won't do, and when it will do it form an endless round Of conversation in the village centers. And when politics have run dry, crop conditions cannot be criticised, and the calf bound statutes of the local justices desk has a five weeks coat of dust upon it, excitement may al ways be procured by starting a rum pus with the department that builds the roads and bridges of the common | wealth.
 i In charge of the highway depart ment for the last three years has been
 a Hartford man, Commissioner Charles l J. Bennett. Selected by Governor Sim con B. Baldwin from a state of will ling engineers, MT. Bennett. was as surprised as any one fiji the state when i the office was rendered to him. He
 was superintendent of streets of Hart
 ford when the offer came-the quality l of his work may have become familiar | to Governor Baldwin during his long peranbulations through the streets of the Capital city. However, he was nominated and confirmed by the Sen ate, ending a fight which lasted for some time over the appointment of a ] highway commissioner. <hH 1 Commissioner Bennett has done very | little advertising. He is the sort of
 man who prefers to let his works be judged by. his works and not by what | he says about them. When he con- | fn he i the past year and to predict the work ] for the coming season it was with the
 understanding that he be kept out of it.
 from the closing of the 1915 legiSla-
 ture the highway department has ac- | complished much | work. New road 1 construction has been accomplished,
 state roads and state aid roads have been repaired, bridges reconstructed
 and many miles of oiling done. Then, too, the department, acting under in structions from the legislature, is put l ting up many signs for automobiles
 on curves and hills where danger ex- istsl
 1 Worzz for the coming year will be started in the spring.
 l There is much to be done-more re- pairs and reconstruction than new construction work, and fair-sized amount, of bridges to be reconstructed or replaced. Y3
 New work-the making into state highway of what is not just plain road-wiIl be inconsiderab1e this com ing season, only $50, ,00O having been appropriated by the legislature for new road construction. Added toN this, from previous appropriations, some of which is tied up because certain towns cannot agree with the depart ment as to how it III be spent. As the towns furnish a share of the money used for the new construction, this brings road building, as far as they are concerned to an effective ldea dock.
 l The only large piece of construction work which should be considered as an extension rather than a develop ment is one and a half miles of gravel road to be built in the town of South | bury. In Groton about three-quarters of mile of concrete road will be built to complete a piece of roadway already commented.
 There is also the possible construc- tion of a, one and one-half mile piece
 through Bolton, known as the Bolton { Notch road. This is the only piece
 of unconstructed state road between
 New Canaan aHd Putnam and has not
 been constructed previously because a
 grade crossing must be eliminated.
 Some time ago the New Haven road
 by reason of it's low finances, was forced to ask the public utilities com mission for permission to suspend the
 elimination of grade crossings until
 such time as it had more money. If
 the railroad feels that it can afford to
 eliminate this grade crossing this sum mer the highway will probably be com structed, otherwise not, as a, relocation
 is, involved, and the town of Bolton. like the railroad, is in poor financial lcondition.
 ! a TY1OJ nj JaI0 Ia hierIx
 construction, in all about $250, ,OO0, will
 be spent here and there on town state roads not on the trunk line system.
 Moreoverg there is further construction
 work that will be carried on where
 towns have advanced money to pay
 the costs. Stamford appropriated ESQ.,
 900 and Branford a like sum, the lat
 ter,\ however, being tied up in litiga-
 tion-
 Department Builds Bridges.
 Some of the most interesting work
 which the highway commissioners has had on his hands since the adjourn
 ment of the legislature is the recon lstruction of unsafe bridges on trunk line highways .4Aecording~ to the stat
 ute passed in 1915 the commissioner
 has the power to reconstruct bridges on trunk line highways if they have a span greater than 25 feet and are I located in a, town, or between towns having a population of 10000 or less if in his opinion the bridges are un- 1 safe. In such o~ees the state pays
 one-half and the town pays one-half
 of the cost If the bridge is between towns their one-half is divided be- tween them in proportion to their grand lists at the completion of the bridge. If the bridge is between coun- ties it is provided that the counties shall each pay One-fourth the cost When lines of street railroad cross the bridge, state, town and company each
 pay one-third of the cost. The act
 further provides that when bridges
 are reconstructed they shall not be less than 2 3 feet in width, with 10 feet additional for each trolley track cross ing them,
 l S55O 900 Available