Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1917-02-02
WHY THIS HASTE?

present, Salem papers and a certain
clique of Salem citizens have taken up
on themselves the task Of denouncins
the Polk officials Of ''ulterior mo
tives' in delaying the immediate con
struction of bridge across the rlv'
er at Salem. The papers have ever
gone so far as to state that there Is
sentiment of secession by people o1
the northeast part Of the county and
agitation there favoring annexation
to Marion county.
The Observer does not believe that
such spirit exists generally among
those people. There may have been
some talk of it by few and it was
made capital of by an over-zealous
reporter in getting up "big" story.
In Polk county the sentiment is de-
cidedly for concrete bridge and
the same Salem paper that printed
the story of secession the other day
had the following to say In its issue
of October 20, under the head "Polk
Roadmen Urge Bridge Of Concrete:
"Urging that the Polk county court
use its efforts to secure a high level
concrete bridge between Salem and
Polk county, resolution was unan-
imously adopted at meeting OF del
egates from all road districts Of Polk
county, which was held in Dallas yes
terday. The meeting was called to
discuss road problems of Polk coun-
ty, each district sending delegates,
about $50 in all. Toward the end Of
the meeting discussion turned to the
inter-county bridge, and each dele
gate was called upon for his opinion.
The delegates all declared that the
high level CONCRETE bridge was the
best type for the purpose. The reso-
luton was then submitted and given
a rising affirmative vote.
The resolution itself was ''Be it
resolved that it is the sense Of this
meeting that the Polk county court
be instructed to use its endeavors for
the construction Of an inter-county
bridge of the high level CONCRETE
tvpe between Salem and Polk coun-
ty."
Could anything be palmer? Here
we have the Polk county court ia
voring concrete bridge because the
people of Polk county, who are going
to pay one-third of the cost of the
bridge, have told them they want then
money invested in CONCRETE
structure, and also because the Polk
county court believes in putting up
substantial crossing that will be
of service for all time to come. Two
bridges have already served a short
period of usefulness across the river
at Salem, the first a wooden one,
which was later replaced by "A steel
bridge that lasted through only "
years. When it was shown that wood
was inferior to steel for bridge pur-
poses a quarter of century ago, a
steel bridge was built. Since that
time it has been found that concrete
is even as far superior to steel for
bridge purposes as steel was to wood
25 years ago. And it might be men
toned here that Salem S interest in
those two old bridges has not yet
been paid for. Think of it, two
bridges gone out of use and not yet
entirely paid for (Polk's portion of
the cost, however, has been settled
years ago) and Salem is clamoring
for another bridge of the same class,
that might have to be replaced in
another 26 years.
Considerable effort is also being
made to create an impression that
a concrete bridge will cost half
million. Competent engineers have
assured the Polk court that such a
bridge as is desired can be built for
not to exceed $26l, 900. The state
highway engineers Office has furnish
ed figures showing the cost of a high
level steel bridge with concrete APP
proach to be $4,000; a low level
steel bridge with cheap trestle ap-
proach, such as is now urged by Sa-
lem will cost $l64,000. Salem esti-
mates this bridge will last 30 year.
But during that time the cost of main-
tenanee, repainting, reAOOring, re-
pairing, etc, as estimated by engin-
GERS, will bring the total cost of such
a bridge to $4,000, while the main.
tenance cost of the above concrete
bridge in fifty years time will
amount to very little. And this is
giving the steel bridge a 5O-year per
iod of life, when there has never
been a bridge on the Willamette that
has stood for thirly years. This in,
cludes railroad bnGgrs which are CIV
en- far better care than highway