The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-01-22
SIGNIFICANCE OF
maintenance.
Greatest Part of Highway Ex-
p0nSe Is For Construction.
BUSINESS METHODS NEEDED

There Should Be a Proper System of
Road Maintenance, With Its AuxiI-
larry System of Road Accounts and
Financial ControI-This Would Place
Expenditures on a Sound Basis.
The greatest part of the large annual
expenditure for roads is for construc-
ton, writes T.. w. James, chief of main
tenance, United States office of public
roads, in the New York Evening Post.
Another large part is spent in repair
ing worn out roads. Very little is spent
Systematically for maintaining in good
condition roads already built. The fact
that it is usually impossible to separ-
ate expenditures for construction, re-
pair and maintenance indicates the in
different attitude of local officials to-
ward maintenance. What such indif-
ference means should be thoroughly
understood
The idea of building roads with bond
LhOuCJ 10 IL SOOu OllC. IC lldnStlucuL
can often be made to good business ad-
vantage, and is good device for max
ing pOsterity share in the payment of
certain advantage that we bequeath
to it. But as usually practiced the
arrangement of issuing bonds serves
actually to shift all payment to poster
ity and to exhaust the proceeds of the
sale in our own generation. We are
heavily discounting the future in road
building, and unless some change is
brought about, financial difficulties are
sure to come that can be met only by
heavy direct taxes that will have to be
expended without any direct benefits.
The first step toward remedying this
condition is really a very simple one.
Every mile of improved road built by
a county from any funds whatever
should create determiiiable annual
liability against the ANNUAL road reve-
nues of the county. This liability is
by competent engineer as
the probable annual cost of Smainte
nance of that particular mile of i'm
proved road.
Let us assume the case of county |
having $4,000 annual road revenue
under tQe maximum levy. The county |
already has 800 miles of common dirt |
roads and is unable to keep them in |
good condition for $33 per mile, be-
cause of the heavy traffic near the mar
ket towns SO it plans to issue bonds
and to construct gravel roads near the |
market towns or railroad |
points or centers of POPULATION. The
question is, How many miles of gravel
'oad should the county build? The en-
,ineer advising the county studies the
available and estimates that
.oads built with the best local gravel |
will cost 1926 per mile annually TO
maintain. To maintain the dirt roads
1t least $50 per mile should be allowed
III 100 miles. BY a simple computa- /
ion we find that fifty-siX miles of gray
i road at $125 is $1,000 and 100 miles
If dirt road is $4,000 and our $4,000
eNeNtic is eAua uSlcu. Ills 49, tneli, |
he limit of such road that the county
houid construct.
Our county governments are not so
ticient as our city governments. How
yer honest county officials may be.
lowever seriously they take their du-
les, they labor under heavy bur-
EN- of habit and custom that practi-
ally makes impossible any thorough
Elective work by present methods.
In 1911 the United States expended
n all $249, OCT for road work;
uarter of billion dollars; more than
ne-third of the value of the 1915 cot
on cropsat 10 cents per pound. If we
yOuld conserve this tremendous annual
lvestment of public wealth i'll public
FORKS so that it may be cumulative i'll
fleet and not dead annual charge for
we must revise our
lethods of conducting road affairs, In
glue rrG;.2c supervision, proper i,