The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-08
INP PROvEMENT 0N HIGHWAYS WILL
 BE COSTLY JOB
Expenditures For Next Year Will Amount To
 $63O,0OO,OOO.
ROAD WORK THIS YEAR
 COST BUT $138, ,00O,Q0O
Lack of Transportation May Cause Some Delay in
 Getting Material.

Washington, D. C., Nov. S.-Wh1le the expenditures during 1919 for hard-surface highways, according to estimates of the Bureau of Pubic Roads of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture, will set new record with a total of Sl38,00o, ,ooo' this figure is small in comparison with the computed available total for 1920 of $633, 100000, the spending or which promises to be dependent chiefly on the quality of materials the present limited railway facilities can transport.
 The items entering into next years estimate are:. Brought forward from unfinished work, 1919 contracts. s165,00o,O0o; funds available from State and county taxes and Federal aid, s27s,00O,0oo; one-fifth State and county bond issues not before avail able, $5O,00O,0o0; one-third unex- pended balance of State and county bond issues previously available, S45,- 100000; available from new bond ts- sues to be voted on in the fall of 1919 and spring of 1920, $100,000,- 900.
 Unless the available open-top cars many of which normally lie idle in
 
 slack season the work which can be done will necessarily be curtailed for lack of ma terials. The total for 1920 ! is more than four times the amount | that has been expended during any i previous year for like purposes. 1 Therefore there must be a tremen- dous increase not only in the mater 1 ial supplies and shipping facilities l but also in the labor supply, and an enlargement of contractors organiza- 1 tions. First of all, according to Thom- 1 as H. Mcdonald, Chief of the Bureau 1 of Public Roads, the attention of all l State, county, and city road-building ] interests should be directed toward overcoming this car shortage. To this end it is recommended that the ship i ping of materials begin earlier than i usual. The first step in accomplish i ing this, MT. Macdonald points out, i is to place under contract during De- i cember and January as great & mile age of roads as possible.
 1 It has been customary to wait un- til contractors organizations were ready to begin work before starting ! the shipment of material. Under 1 these conditions many thousands of open-top cars lie idle during the lat ter part of February, all of March
 
 the past spring the number of open top cars that were idle totaled more 1 than 250,000. This, of course, was partly unavoidable owing to the late
 date which work got under way, fol- | lowing the signing of the arn1istice. By awarding contracts as early as possible, contractors will be able to ascertain their material requirements at different points, and so will be
 in position to place orders dependent
 on rail transportation a considerable time in advance.
 Whilethe placing of material in sto- rage, which may result from such a 1 course, involves some expense, 1t will be small compared to the loss that will result if contractors are not in
 a position to go ahead with the work 1 because of lack of materials. In view
 of the experience of 1919 and the
 greatly increased program for next
 year, it seems probable, according
 to the Bureau of Public Roads, thai
 contracts which are not awarded dur
 ing the winter months will have little
 opportunity for being supplied with
 materials which require rail trans. |, portauon.