Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-12-17
GOOD ROAD ENGINEERING
HELPS TAXPAYER IN END
Instance of Wild Guess at Cost II
Cited to Prove Value Of Proper
Estimating.
Law In Every State Requiring Com
-petent Inquir;, Into Highway
Improvement Urged.

so much has been said about tno I'M
possibility of estimating the cost OF
road without proper preliminary engineer
ing examination of the route that some
conservative taxpayers are inclined to
think that hidden in all this linguistic
smoke is surreptitious desire to make
jobs for engineers" said an official OF
the American Highway Association few
days ago. so an officially reported in
stance of a wild guess at road costs by
thoroughly experienced department may
be .cited .oftably to prove that the tax
payer is the sole beneficiary of good
highway engineering.
'Eape Cod is somewhat rolling tract
of deep sand covered with low scrub oak
and pine. 1t has some marshes and small
ponds. 1t has been surveyed by the to-
posIapners of the United States geo
logical survey and thoroughly mapped
by them For ten years the Massachu-
setIS highway commission has been build
ding roads there, and its engineers are
familiar with the general conditions in
fiuencing the cost of road building. A
year or so ago the commission was off,
ciaily requested to make Immediately an
estimate of the cost of building a two
ans-one-half-mile road through an unset
tied part of this scrub-oak district. There
"dS no time 10 MAKE surveys. ana an
estimate of $4,000 was accordingly pre-
pared on the basis of the existing infor
NATION and experience in similar work
thsfe. The data at hand were more COM
prehsnSive. il should be observed. than
those which are often used in laying out
FAR more comprehensive schemes for the
approval of taxpayers.
Experience in Massachusetts.
Slater a proper survey of the road
was, made and it was found that the
route laid down from the information
originally available would cost $4,000
to +build. but another route which did
NOT seem desirable originally could be
adopted and the cost reduced to 27.0O0.
The. original estimate was, therefore
only two-thirds of the cost of the pro-
posed road and only four-ffths of the
cost by the better route located later
But this is by no means all of the story
The Massachusetts Legislature made a
guess of its own at the cost of this
road before il asked any help from
the commission, and actually appro-
priated $4,000 to build the road with
ou1 having any knowledge of what the
work would cost.
what would have been the result
had reconstruction been started as soon
as the legislative appropriation was
avala Bile? 1t would have been impos-
Stbc to complete the road and travel
ers over the completed section would
maze been led to an almost impassable
trail through the loose sand of scrub
oak barren. Everybody connected with
the Undertaking, except the legislature
really at fault. would have been blamed
Tor their poor management of the work.
and. sensible roadbuiiding would have
become subject of local derision.
- Hasty Action in Virginia.
'Such hasty. inaccurate guesses at
road costs caused a great deal Of trou-
bic in Virginia few years ago County
officials designated large mileage of
roads for Improvement. guessed at the
cost. and then persuaded the taxpayers
to vote bonds for the construction
Wien all this was done, when the peo-
pie had committed themselves to con-
siderable debts on promises of definite
systems of good roads. engineers were
at -last called into the business. They
repe<ted that the roads could mot be
burr for the money provided. particu-
larry where considerable grading was
necessary and comparatively expensive
types of construction We're proposed
This resulted in 50 much dissatisfac-
ton and aroused such opposition to
road improvements that the Virginia
legislature had to pass laws to regu-
1ate-Such affairs. which require a prop
er estimate of the cost of roads to be
matte before bonds are issued to pay
foE1hem.
'AS- matter of fact there should be
b<H in every state requiring an ex-
anrnetion and estimate by a compe-
terC person of any proposed road i'm
pravements costing more than $500 per
mis- before such work is undertaken.
Thyre is an enormous waste of money
on. goads every year. due to undertake
Ing more than there are funds to pay
for when this is discovered,
Speeding the remaining money in silly
scratching of the ground to make a
merG temporary change in conditions,
wfdG the first hard rain will ruin