Tombstone epitaph., 1916-12-10
GOOD ROADS
VALUE OF CONCRETE ROAD
Engineer Compares It With Other Types of Highways and Shows It's
 Many Advantages.

"A concrete road will tend to pull stay out" according to A. x. Johnson, highway engineer, who for 6 number of years was connected with the office of public roads. Uaited States depart ment of agriculture.
 In speaking on the subject of con- crete roads, their construction and value to a community, he said:
 .Clean, hard, well graded sand and pebbles or crushed stone, mixed with cement and water to form a mass of Quaky or jellylike consistency, even tually hardens into stone. When such mixture is laid so that slabs 16 feet wide by from 30 to 90 feet long are formed, you have a pavement with durable, non-skid surface making pos. sible higher traffic speed with large loads drawn by fewer horses or less tractive power-a road open to traffic 365 days in the year-briefly, a con crete road.
 Successful concrete road construc. ton requires, first, proper preparation of foundation O. subgrade. This means competing the soil where the concrete is to be laid and providing drainage so that water will not remain under the concrete slabs. Upon the properly prepared foundation concrete Is placed in one or two layers or courses. This means that some con crete roads are built after what is known as the one-course construction.
 ''The first consists of relatively rich concrete mixture throughout; the sec Ond of a somewhat leaner mixture for q base, with a richer top or wearing course applied before the concrete in the base has commenced to harden. Usually where the slabs forming a con crete road are greater than 16 feet wide, or where the roads must cross low, frequently wet and hence poorly drained spots, re-enforcing in the form of mesh fabric is embedded in the con- crete while placing. This assists to prevent the slabs from cracking, either as the result of settlement of the foun- dation or from the heaving due to frost action
 High wearing quality of the con- crete road results from using prop erly graded, clean, hard sand and crushed rock or pebbles. These must be combined with cement and water in proper proportions. Cement makes firm binder. It holds the sand or brok- en stone so tightly together that mod arp fro fFic rrnduraS hut littla 1r.or nm the surface and cannot dislodge the particles.
 Concrete roads cost in tke neigh borhood of S15,OO0 per mile to build. When built the cost of keeping them In repair, owing to the permanence of concrete, is an average of only $50 per mile. The enormous annual saving in the maintenance of a concrete road compared with other types is shown by statistics gathered from Massachu. sctts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York for eight years. These combined statistics show total average cost per mile of SG0S for main tenance of roads built with material other than concrete, while a concrete road costs only an average of $50 per mile per year.
 Reduced to an average basis and distributed over a period of 20 years under a s1,50O,OOc bond issue. tke av- craze cost of a concrete road to a farmer living on land valued at S30.63 per acre is SA cents per acre per year. This estimate is based upon proposed concrete road construction in Vermilior county, Illinois, and vermilion county has just accepted bids for Al miles O. concrete highway Distributed over period of years and capitalized among the farmers and taxpayers who art thus enabled to reach their market town 365 days in the year-and more quickly than ever befOre-with larger loads drawn by fewer horses, the cost of a concrete road Is negligible. So concrete road is relatively cheap be