The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-11


 3. State aid road, Morris to Kimberly, miles, grading and macadamizing, $6SOO. 4. Lynns Crossing road, Sayre to Walk CT county, miles, grading and macadam- izing, $20.0O0.
 5. State aid road, end of macadam to Morris, miles, macadamizing, HSO0. 6. Springville road, change of road to eliminate A. G. S. grad crossings at Argo, Il miles, grading and macadamiz- ing, 5000.
 '. New steel bridge over Mud creek, ? spans, 124 feet each, contract price, s6S95. Total, S123,
 The policy of the present board has very wisely been along the line of con tinuous highway building to the county lines, as distinguished from the short sighted and obsolete custom of disj9inted short section work, which is bad judg-
 mcnt and serves no purpose, hence the above items of authorized present con struction.
 ECONOMIES AFFECTED Even with the efficient and satisfactory results obtained during the last 12 months, the demands of the work in every section of the county have been far in excess Of the ability of the board financially to | meet them competently, and will be even more so during the current year with les sened income by reason of recent leg islature enactments. The study of eco
  been therefore imperatvely necessary, and with the aid of an accurate system of cost accounting, very material economies have been so affected over any work done in previous years, especially in the con vict department the efficiency of which has been very greatly improved, and Will be still more as the system is devel- oped.
 The handling of chert macadam will serve to illustrate this point. Road maintenance as above indicated is the most considerable and permanent item of cost to the county. Chert has been, and still is, the most economic material for road metal or macadam surface, on the great majority and heaviest mileage of roads to be maintained under medium traffic The available chert supplies are not closely accessible to large area of the county, requiring therefore in these sections shipment by rail to the nearest railroad delivery point, and long haul to the center of the strip to be macadam- ized, this haul averaging from four to nine miles in recent work. The cost Of team haul has been per ton mile average such as to make the delivered cost of chert on the road. including freight and pit royalty, too heavy. To obviate this condition automatic bins and chutes have been installed in adjacent and nearest railroad trestles, so located as to reduce 1 the mile-haul nearly one-half, also eliml- hating all cost of rehandling, from which | bins the chert is taken by auto trucks 1 and placed on the roads. Under favor able road conditions it has already been demonstrated that in the case of the 1 Blount county road for instance, on
 which approximately 2O,Ooo yards of mac
 adam will be required the saving in haul and in rehandling over previous methods l and facilities will amount to approximate 1 ly $1S,OO0. On the state aid road, where
 the average haul will still be three miles,
 the saving affected in the same way should be approximately $S00O
 1 Road scarifying, using screened and sIzed chert together with anto truck haul,
 under proper and favorable road condi- tions, will in my opinion, affect heavy 1 and proven economy over any previous methods or figure of cost.
 l In the matter of concrete bridges the new plans and methods now in use have affected a considerable estimated saving
 of cost. With materials at 1915 prices, and by the use of convict labor the cost of reinforced concrete work, arch and slab | construction has generally run from Sl0
 to SIS per cubic yard. The cost of the
 heavy reinforced concrete piers under
 Maxine bridge, over Warrior river, con-
 vict built, including foundations. was s1S.33 per cubic yard. The cost of the | same type of piers of the same size, height and plan, built by previous 1 board of revenue, by contract, on the Kim
 berly bridge, likewise over the Warrior
 river, was s2S.13 per cubic yard, showing
 a possible credit here to convict labor of 125 per cent over a basis of contract cost in this instance.
 In view of the foregoing and other facts, the use of convicts on the public roads of Jefferson county can be clearly
 shown by the F months records of cost l off finio ma Ia in to ,a q success.
 RECOMMENDATIONS
 l The work done by the board of revenue which has come under my observation
 has been wise, as far as possible perma- 1 nent, and has been shown to be eco-
 homie in a very high degree in view of
 the existing difficulties and excess re- quirements, and should disarm criticism made without proper knowledge and fair | considera tion of the governing conditions above outlined.
 1 would respectfully suggest that in fu- ture all work of any magnitude which is l in view be authorized as far in advance 1 of actual construction as possible, in or der to give the engineering department time to thoroughly study the same and reduce its cost to a minimum. This ap- plies particularly to economic road loca- l tion, in which considerable economies are possible. For this purpose the work of each year should be forecasted and defin- itely outlined as far as is consistently possible in growing county like Jeffer- son, wherein each years apparent needs are usually inadequate before it's close. Sufficient attention is seldom given | either here or elsewhere to the imme- diate upkeep of newly constructed roads Deterioration during and subsequent to
 the first year, as is automatic, takes place
 in numerically increased ratio, avoidable
 in large measure by immediate and con stant attention. This principle is well
 understood in the work of this county and has been observed as far as possi- bie, but should receive and will be given in future more observance.
 | It is a reasonable expectancy that if the competent methods of road work in- stituted by the present board of revenue are permitted to remain in force per feted and rendered more economic as they can and will be by the further study of economies, incident to the continued use Of convict labor. the entire road sys- tenn Of Jefferson county should be prac- tically rebuilt and improved (keeping pace also with renewals, maintenance, and the
 annual tncremenD, with the income funds now set aside and to be expected for that purpose in from five to ten years
 time without the issuance of a bond
 In the specific instance of the proposed warrior river road, the limitations of the county in respect to the immediate con- struction of the river section with pres ent available forces and income (which
 IS reasonable and logicaD, in addition to its other and similarly necessary expendi- lures above outlined. should be better i'm far ffoa