The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-07-19
GOOD ROADS
And How to Keep Them in Repair-ver-
mont Examples.

Hout EAdilpito.
Rutland is to-day suffering the effects
of mistaken and makeshift system OF
maintaining her streets. Judging from
the comments of visiting motorists, IL
win not be long before we shall have
the reputation of possessing the worst
streets OF any city in Vermont ii not
the worst in New England, says the Rut.
land Herald.
II is true that the appropriations for
building and maintaining our streets are
too small, but il is also true that a
large part of our street money is ALSO.
lutely wasted.
Take Grove street from State street
north, for instance. This street was
once macadamized. IL possessed solid
broken stone base, but the surface had
become worn and uneven. Instead OF re.
pairing it by well.established methods,
the street department spiked up the ma.
csdam and laid down gravel.
The condition of that important thor.
oughfare to-day is standing argument
against such roadmaking for such
street.
Then there is North Main street. This
street is paved with macadam with a
tar surface. IL is one of the best streets
in the city, but is rapidly being ruined
by improper repairing. Weather, heavy
have dug thousands of holes in the pave
ment. How are these holes being filled ?
Crushed stone is dumped into the holes,
hastily tamped and left to be ground up
by wheels, pulyerized and sucked out by
swiftly passing automobiles. 1t is mere.
ly the application of state political road
making to the pavements of the city, |
and the results speak for themselves.
The evident intention of the commits |
sioner is to spread out the city money |
available for streets over as much terri
tory as possible, but the practical results
are worse than in the old days when an
alderman was elected to get good slice
Of street money expended in "his ward"
Then, at least, there were stretches of
good road; to-day, there are practically
none.
The city must face the problem of per.
nanent pavements honestly and courage
,usly. Rutland is too important a link
IN tourist chains, too important as
.rading center, to be handicapped by bad
streets. Let the public. money be ex-
pended on permanent street surfaces and
ct them be kept in repair by intelligent
md scientific processes.
France has the best roads in the world
Her country highways would put any
treet in Rutland to shame. and the Sc.
ret of French good roads is permanent,
construction and careful
epair When a depression or break APP ,
ears in French road, the patrolman
rives one-horse wagon, or even
and barrow, to the spot and sets to
7ork
He picks out the hole clear down to
he coarsely crushed rock, making
lean-cut excavation, with perpendicular
ldes. Then he lamps in the crushed
tone, size for size, binding it with wa
sr or pitch, according to the character
/ the road, so that, when completed, the
spair cannot be distinguished from the
grounding road. |
Permanent roads, scientifically CON /,
.ructed, last practically forever, and the
'st of upkeep is surprisingly small when
ne considers their quality.
Mskeshift road repairing is not CON
ned to Rutland In travelling about
ermont by highway, one frequently en-
unters valuable piece of macadamized
ad going swiftly to pieces. Just what
onomy or sense there is in letting
silly piece of road disintegrate has new
yet appeared, yet it is being done in
ores of towns, while meanwhile costly
ade reduction and cutoffs 60 forward
,ewhere.
Motorists who contribute such large
oportion of the cost of maintaining =
ads have a right to protest against MI
ch a policy, and motorists in Rutland,
10 are also local taxpayers, have
Int to protest against the condition
Rutland streets.
he Poor Are Getting Rich in England.
In the August American Magazine, B. -