Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-06-07
IT IS TOO SLOW WORK
Milwaukee Journal Editorial
Urges Speedier Program
for Permanent Roads.

Wisconsin has laid out an admira-
BILE scheme of improving roads on .
statewide scale, but the most beauti-
full plan in the world is Of little avail
if it is not carried out with reasona-
BILE speed. Under this plan the fed
eral, state and county governments
put up money to build this road sys-
tenn of 5000 miles which will ulti-
mately connect the county seats of
the entire state.
The 1918 work on this road scheme
provides for twenty-five counties
building earth roads covering 100
miles, so that each stretch of i'm
provement by locating and grading,
averages little less than eight miles
Seventeen counties will build gravel
roads, seventy miles in all, each new
stretch averaging about four miles.
There will be six macadam roads
twenty-one miles in all, the average
length being about three miles. There
will be sixteen brick and concrete
roads, forty.five miles in all, or less
than three miles per stretch. This
gives 326 miles of road to be improved
in sixty separate spots, 100 miles of
dirt, 10 of gravel, 81 miles of macad
am, and As miles of brick or concrete
More than half of this road construc-
tion will be plain dirt construction
which means bad road in bad
weather Only forty-five miles, or
one-seventh of this total mileage,
will be permanent road.
The trouble with this scheme OF
road building is that it is too largely
posed of temporary work, dirt
road being a makeshift. Taking the
permanent roads, those Of brick or
concrete, it would take more than
100 years at this rate of construction
to get a road system covering merely
the 5000 miles which constitutes the
trunk line system. Milwaukee coun-
ty alone has 125 miles of permanent
roads, so that the state proposes to
build about one-third Of the length
of this system in one year. Taking
in the macadam, brick and concrete
roads TO be built in 1918, sixty-six
miles out of5, 000, it would require
about seventy-five years at the pres
emit rate TO complete the system.
This program will ofcourse increase
to some extent as the federal appro
priation becomes larger, but even at
best, it is deplorably slow. The state
ought to plan a road system to be
built within the next five or ten
years, if this can be done while the
war is going on. A program lasting
SO or 100 years is unthinkable. IF
Wisconsin roads cannot be pulled out
of the mire except by half century
of work then the problem is well
nigh hopeless. .
Wisconsin would have to spend
about s65, 200, 900 to $4,000, 900 to have
5000 miles of concrete or other per
manent road, whereas present plans
call for $4,000, 600 worth ofroad build
ing in three years. This, it should be
remembered, Would take care only of
the main 70 ads which constitute one
seventh of total mileage. On the
other hand, these roads connecting
every county seat in the state bear
the bulk of traffic and they should
be built with the least possible delay.
Wisconsin cannot have roads with
out spending more money. Milwau-
kee county built roads by levying
taxes. It is the only sound system in
the long run. State or county bond
issues multiply the cost ofsroads. The
legislature at it's next session should
by all means provide some method of
speeding up Wisconsin's permanent
road building.
Milwaukee Journal Editorial