The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-04-05
State Highways
By r. ID. Royce, County Highway
COMMISSIONER

commissioner
The roads on the State Trunk High
way System in this county have al
ready been laid out and they are IA
miliar to the public through legal
description of them published in the
county newspapers. The preliminary
official map is on file with the county
clerk and maps are on file in the Of
flee of the County Highway Commits
sioner.
The total mileage of the State
Trunk Highway System in the state
is 49SS.3S.
The two features that will be most
noticeable to the public when active
work is in progress will be the patrol
maintenance and the standardized
road marking. Firstly as to the main
tenance:
1t is admitted by everybody who
has anything to do with road work
that the only system of maintaining
roads, which means keeping the roads
in condition after they are built, is
by patrol maintenance. The tendency
under the old system was to build a
road and after several years, when it
was badly worn out, to repair it,
which meant in a good measure re-
construct it. This in turn meant that
before its reconstruction it was a very
poor road to carry the traffic and it
further meant big item of expense
for reconstruction.
Ihp n106nrn thnnrU Of ;r+o
is that a stitch in time saves nine;
and that to maintain a road you must
keep at it constantly and make repairs
as soon as a weakness appears. This
not only gives you a better road, but
1t saves money. 1t operates like the
section system on railroads-men in
charge Of sections devoting their
whole time to keeping them in repair.
Patrol maintenance will be placed
on all the State Trunk Highways and
the task is a big one. The law pro-
vides that the entire system after May
L, whether previously improved or
not, must be adequately maintained.
The state has been divided into
eight divisions with a division engin-
eer in charge of each, having in his
jurisdiction eight to eleven counties.
In each division there will be a divi-
sion maintenance engineer especially
in charge of maintenance in his divi-
sion The county state road and bridge
committee will have general charge of
planning the maintenance in the
county. The county highway commits
sioner will have direct charge of the
patrOlmen in each county.
Each county has been divided into
patrol sections and in many counties
the patrolmen have been selected. The
plan is to get good, substantial. reli-
able men and they will be paid from
S11O to S135 per month, depending
upon the mileage to be taken care of,
the condition of the road, the volume
of traffic, etc.
Certain sections of the roadfare in
such condition, largely through the
lack of drainage, that they must be
graded and the bitches opened before
patrol maintenance can be placed on
them. To take care of these sections.
gang maintenance will be put on early
this spring with the necessary heavy
machinery furnished by the county
and the roads will be graded and put
in condition for the patrolmen. Ger
tain sections of road will require re-
surfacing or repairing by adding new
material, which will also be done by
the gang maintenance crew. Many OF
the counties having a large mileage
of stone or gravel roads which require
bituminous treatment have appro-
priated additional funds for this pur-
pose and the oiling gang will do most
of the work.
Next article-The System of Patrol
Maintenance