Milford chronicle., 1918-12-13
STATE ROAD OUTSIDE
of The SMALL TOWNS
Avoids Hazards TO TOWnsmen and
Gives Less Inconvenience
to AutOists

Charles NJ. Upham, chief engineer for
the State Highway Commission, has
an article in a recent issue OF Pub
lie Roads" organ of the Bureau OF
Public Roads. L. S. Department OF
Agriculture. on the subject. Direct
Loading a Success in Concrete Con-
struction." This article is also sum
married. in the issue Of the Municipal
Journal, dated November l6. While
the article would hardly be Of sufficient
interest to the general public, because i
of its technical nature, to publish 1t In |
full, yet there are some portions Of 1t |
which are of general interest and !
these are summarized briefly in this |
story.
Use of Labor Saving Devices
The purpose of the article is to show
the increasing necessity that labor
saving devices and methods be used
wherever possible In all road con
struction on account of the high cost OF
labor and materials. The illustration
used BY the writer TO show cost redue-
ing methods by direct loading Is ten
mile stretch Of the Coleman DUPONT
road in Sussex county. The new fea-
ture on this particular construction
was the direct loading and method Of
handling the materials in marked con-
trast to the old procedure OF storing
the materials in front Of the concrete
mixer and loading the mixer with the
use of wheelbarrows. The WrlteI
proints out that under the old metnod
| the materials were not always dis
tributed uniformly and the Wheeiers
had to push their wheelbarrows q
considerable distance, while at Other
Times there would be. too much mater
Iiai distributed. There was always
chance that dirt would be picked up
with the road materials when the lat
ter was shoveled into the wheelbar-
rows. Direct loading avoids such loss.
The new method also eliminated one
complete handling of materials ana re-
LEASED approximately IL men from the
mixer gang.
Direct Loading Method
And what is the direct loading
method? Briefly it is this, as sum
married. from Mr.. Upham's article. Ihe
materials are loaded directly from
freight cars into box containers IN cor
rect proportions. transported TO the
lconcrete mixer and dumped directly
Into the skip. The containers were
transDorted to the job by means OF an
industrial railway and for this pur-
nose motor trucks could also be used
Each car carried two containers anc
* cars were used to haul the materia
to the mixer. A derrick, attached tC
The mixer. was used to lift the con
taIners from the cars. The transport
ing of materials was carried on D!
three trains. handled by an industrial
, engineer. While one was being loade'
at the freight station, the second wa
being hauled to the concrete NIKE
p and the third was being unloaded a
the mixer. Allowing one and one-hal
minutes for mixing the concrete ahC
under favorable conditions, approx
mately 60 feet of l4-foot paVemeh
= was laid in one day.
Road Located Outside OF Town
So much for the subject-matter
/ the article. incidentally Mr.. UphaI
mentions another phase OF the roa
work that is of even more general II
terest. In this connection he says:
"The line of the dupont Road
practically straight. there being Onl
II Three curves in the ten-mile sectiol
New location was followed with u
exception of approximately two mile
A.. The policy of locating the road 1ui
2 outside of small towns, as was dof
in this case, seems to be gaining fave
with the people Of the adjacent teri
tory. for the road is available for III
and the small towns are not in any wa
e troubled or subjected to the hazards
through auto traffic. Through au
J. traffic, on the other hand, Is not obi
ed TO slow down nor does It encount
the many cross streets that It Wou
in passing through the villages
towns"