Milford chronicle., 1917-10-05
DU PONT WOULD BUILD
70 NILES OF HIGHWAY
lContinned from Page Onel

Continued from Page One)
the bonds to be paid OFF with fee
from automobile licenses. The Stat
Highway, it has always been felt
would be the most costly road to b.
constructed, and the lowest estimate
ever placed upon it, for macadan
construction, was S750OO0, which die
not include roads already built by
New Castle County.
If the State Highway Commission
} should take over the completed por-
tions of the New Castle County State
Highway system, it would reduce the
amount General DUPONT would be
called upon to pay out of his own
pocket considerably. 1t would mean
he would be called upon to pay for
about 40 miles of highway across
Kent county. and also to construct
portions of the road now incompleted
along the State Highway in New
Castle county, which would cost any
where from S800,O00 to 81 100000 ac-
cording to the width of the road and
materials used in construction for the
entire project.
If the Highway Commission, how
ever. should decided upon entirely
new concrete or warrenite construc-
ton for a State road from the Kent
county line to Wilmington, the cost
of such a highway as General dupont
/ offers to build would range from ST.
| 100000 to 100000, it is estimated.
General dupont did not attend the
! Highway Commission in Dover, but
sent his formal offer, which is as
follows:
September 20, 1917
To the Hons. John G. Townsend, JO-
siah Marvel Walter o. Hoffecker,
and Joseph e. Holland, Members
of the State Highway Department
of Delaware.
Gentlemen: With the advent Of the
automobile. l realize the wonderful
DEVELOPMENT of which our little state
is susceptible and that the first es-
sential for this development is well
laid out system of modern highways
traversing all the sections of the
state. 1t was obvious from the be-
ginning that the backbone of such
system should be a main north and
South Highway.
Familiarity with the great boule
wards of Europe and those that have
in recent years been constructed in
this country was the foundation for
the conception of a great longitudinal
boulevard as the backbone of the
highway system for the state, wide
enough to carry a road for vehicular
travel and when the development that
is bound to follow demands this. two
roads. one for travel in each direc- !
ton, and also wide enough to carry
the public utilities which must come
with the development and increase in
population.
As you know. following necessary
legislation. and after many surveys
all summer, in the autumn of 1911, l
organized a private corporation, call
ed Coleman dupont Road Incorpo-
rated" for the purpose of building
such a boulevard for the state at my
own expense. My original intention,
as frequently stated, was that the
State should ultimately control and
have the benefit of this boulevard
when fully developed and as rapidly
as each part might be developed. the
Road for vehicular travel to be first
built upon it being required to be
conveyed to the State upon compile
ton. Unfortunately, some of the peO-
pie of the state failed to see the prac-
ticability or the value to the State of
such a great main trunk highway.
Other persons imagined that some
personal profit might result to me
from the project. From these and :
possibly other reasons opposition to
the boulevard arose in some parts of (
the State and resulted in litigation I
which, in the form of several suits, /
has been in progress most OF the time
since the spring of 1912 and has nee
essarily delayed the completion of the .
boulevard.
The whole right of way between
the Maryland line and Georgetown, a
distance of about twenty miles. has
been acquired. and the vehicular road
has been completed thereon and con-
veyed to the State in accordance with
the provisions of Section 16S of the
general corporation law OF the state.
Work is now under way on the sec
tion of the road between Georgetown
and the Appenzellar farm, which is
located a few miles south OF Milford.
the condemnation of the right of way
across which has been delayed by a
suit brought by Appenzellar and now
pending in the Supreme Court of the
United States. All but a small part
of the right of way between the Ap-
penzellar farm and Milford has been
acquired. the unacQuired part being
also in litigation. While the surveys
have been made for the entire prOpOs-
ed length of the boulevard, its loca-
ton. width and character have not
been fully determined north of Mil
ford.
1t may be that the public interest
aroused by the boulevard project and
the demonstration furnished by the
twenty miles of vehicular road COM
pleted have done much to awaken the
people of our State to some realiza-
ton of the splendid system of mod
ern highways and of the wonderful
benefits that must result therefrom.
1t may be also that there are many
now who are looking far enough into A,
the future to visualize a longitudinal ..
boulevard, such as l originally COR ,
,eived, in full operation. 1t is doubt