The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1918-12-05
100000 THE
HIGHWAYS Of STATE
MINNESOTA GOOD ROADS WILL
BE EXTENDED TO SIX
THOUSAND MILES.
INCREASE To BE MADE In YEAR
WAR DEMONSTRATED THE PRAC-
TICABILITY AND VALUE OF
MOTOR TRUCK.

MOTOR TRUCK.
The world war taught Minnesota
along with the rest of the United
States a valuable lesson in motor
truck transportation and the close OF
the war promises to bring with it q
boon to the people of the state in
the material extension and better.
ment of it highways system. Te
this end C. NJ. Babcock, commission.
er of highways, is preparing road.
building and maintenance program
l that will involve the expenditure OF
more than $6,000,O00 in the next Il
months.
War Over, Push Made.
In the period that this country
was engaged in the war all road
building was abandoned, only neces-
sary maintenance work being done
Now that the war is over, Commits
sioner Babcock, says he shall take ev-
cry advantage of the government
indicated policy to encourage high
way development as means of aid
ing in the reconstruction of business
from war to a peace footing.
The war demonstrated, Commits
sioner Babcock says, the great value
of motor trucks in freight transpor-
tation, and, in his plan for better
roads in Minnesota, he will build
with the object in view of making
this one of the most efficient states
in the Union for the use of motor
trucks. That means that roads must
be built and maintained with a foun-
dalton and surfacing sufficiently
strong to stand, the wear of the heav-
lest truck traffic.
More Trucks Used Now.
Under direction of the War Depart
ment, Commissioner Babcock, along
with road officials of other states of
1917 and 1918, of motor truck trans
portation. An average of the tests
the nation made tests in September,
made on trunk line highways thru
out the state showed gain in 1918
over 1917 in the use of motor trucks
Of approximately 400 per cent. An
instance of tests at two points will
suffice to show the general increase.
On the Dodd road, leading out of
Minneapolis to the south and south
west, the 1917 test showed a total
of 1,189 vehicles per day, of which
II per day were trucks. In 1918 the
test gave total of 1,306 vehicles per
day and the motor trucks numbered
42.3 per day. These tests covered a
period of nine days and were con-
Quoted for 20 hours each day in 1917,
but for only 18 hours each day in
1918.
On the Sherburne-St. Cloud high
way, which is the main distributing
road into the Twin Cities for traffic
from Northwestern Minnesota, Can
ada, North Dakota and a part of
South Dakota, the tests showed an
average of three trucks per day in
1917 and 1873 per day in 1918. The
trucks counted were of the heavy
freighter type, no attention being
paid to the small, light delivery kind.
Mr.. Babcock says this indicates
two things-greater. use of trucks by
farmers for hauling their produce to
market, and increased use of trucks
by manufacturers and jobbers of the
large distributing centers as COM
pared to the use of freight trains on
railroads. Within a workable radi
us, Mr.. Babcock asserts, motor trucks
afford faster service, they are cheap
er and less breakage ensues. With
a view to the future the War depart
ment anticipates close to 100 per
cent use of trucks in the transporta-
ton of soldiers and war material ov-
er good roads in this country should
it ever again engage in a war, and
it will encourage the construction of
highways to that end.
Network of Roads Planned.
At the present time Commissioner
Babcock has in mind the completion
of roads now begun and the building
of new roads sufficient to bring Min
nesota's good roads system up to a
total of approximately 5000 miles.
The system will be what is known as
arterial conjunction and extension,
the plan being to connect up to the
system every county seat and every
large town of the state so that a per-
son starting from any of these points
in the state will have a main high
way upon which to travel comfort
ably and easily to another point he
may wish to reach, no matter how re-