Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-06-24
MAKING RECORD IN
HIGHWAY BUILDING
Old Methods Replaced by Mod
ern in Delaware, and Marked
Progress Noted.

Dover. June 24.-Much has been said
relative TO the rate of completion OF state
highways.
When concrete road construction was
first undertaken, the specifications were
very indefinite and the contractor was not
held 10 any definite methods of constrtlc-f
ton. This meant that. for period, prog
rcss on concrete roads was Faster than ON
practically any other kind OF road con-
striction After short time, however, 1t
was found that this rapid construction
was quickly lost in maintenance. In
vestigations and tests showed that It was
not possible to hurry concrete road con.
struction, as this was a particular type OF
road that must be carefully and thorough,
lv constructed otherwise the results woulu
be faulty roads with high maintenance.
Constant study in concrete road con-
struction showed that the little details
that were at first thought to be lnesSen-
tial arc really the points that were noees-
sary to bring about perfect work nc
carving into effect of all OF these details
meant that the progress IN that particular
type of construction was greatly decreaseu
and contractors that were formerly max
ing great daily strides found that 1t was
not possible to complete more than one
half the amount of road as they had COM
pleted formerly. This was no hardship,
however. either on the contractors OF on
the speed of construction, for conditions
were normal and contractors could blu
accordingly.
Only a few years ago it was compara-
tiyrly easy to count on the progress that
could be expected in the completion ol
road work Rail shipments were OF such
regularity that contractor could expect
regular deliveries; labor was plentiful'
and with this abundance OF labor and ma
tcrials. roads were completed within
reasonable tune. Recently the materlal
market has been so disturbed that 1t is
difficult for contractors to acquire ma
terials. and railroads have so nadequatcly
handled shipments necessary for the
completion Of highways that contractors
have been seriously handicapped, and the
proCress of completing State highways has
been seriously retarded. The labor supply
also has been very inadequate and the
quality has been inferior as compared
with the supply of a few years ago.
Contractors, however, have overcome
many of these difficulties by meeting the
present day conditions with satisfactory
equipment and by changing the methods
of handling their work.
HIGHWAY PLANT NEAR GboRGEFo" y
Probably one of the greatest highway
near Georgetown, and is operated by
Elder 4 Co of Wilmington.
This plant is so designed as to overcome
shortage of materials to the extent that
large reserve stock piles may he acquired
while the contractor is grading the road,
so that when the plant Is ready to lay con-
crete there is an abundance of material
on hand and no delays are occasloned
through the lack of material. With the
addition of the stock pile on hand, the
daily shipments of material are sufficient
10 keep the plant in constant operation
and large daily progress can be made.
BY the use of this exceptional highway
plant the labor situation has been over
come to a great extent. The plant IN
cludes one of the largest concrete mixers
made, a loading crane, industrial track j,
dinky engines, fiat cars, steam dcrrIckaA1
material bins and other minor equIpme
The size and design of the plant allowsFs
minimum of labor to be used IN completing
the concrete roadway.
There were several details in the Older
method of road construction which dc
manded the necessity Of a large number OF
laborers, but with the progress IN per
fecting road equipment, many new meth
ods have been brought about that have
dispensed with a large number OF these
labOreTs.
One of these most successfully tried
methods is now being used by Mr. Elder
near Georgetown. At time when labor
was plentiful it was customary Tor
contractor TO haul the materials that were
used in the concrete 10 the road by means
of wagons or trucks. These materials
were stored on the subgrade or adjacent to
the road. and when it was desired to turn
them into concrete roadway, they were
conveved into the mixer by means of
wheelbarrows. manned by several labor
ers. With the Elder plant this operation
Is not necessary and the labor Is not
needed.
The operation followed by Elder & Co,
for making this concrete road Is 10 load the
ingredients, which consist Of stone, sand
and cemenr, into proper size boxes, which
are placed on small cars and by the Use of
the dinky engine are hauled from the
loading plant, which is located near the
freight station, to the highway that is
being constructed. At this point port
able crane lifts the boxes from the cars and
empties them into the concrete mixer.
After q thorough mixing, the concrete is
deposited on the subgrade and properly
shaped by the use of templets and forms.
By this method of construction it will be
seen that the ingredients entering into the
road construction are handled only by
machinery and after once being started
from the source, are not held up until
kthey are Incorporated into the concrete
pavement.
After the concrete is hardened, it is
wed by being covered with two inches
earth and kept thoroughly wet for
kod of IA days After this, it Is allowed
thoroughly dry for two additional
KS, and II Is then thrown open to the
lic.
Many plants of this nature are now In
D4se, but the majority of them are OF a size
that turn out one half cubic yard of con-
crete at each operation. The particular
plant of Elder d Co. is of such a size that
one and one-third cubic yards of concrete is
turned out at each operation.
While shipments of materials, due to
the extreme cement situation, have inter-
fered with the progress of the work, and
while the weather in the early spring was
not conducive to good progress, this con-
tractor will, by July ], complete over four
miles of concrete highway. This establish
es a record for fast progress in lineal com
pletion of concrete highways in Delaware.
Under normal conditions with salts
factory shipments of materials, and rea-
sonable supply of labor, this particular
plant would complete nearly one mile of
this type of highway each week
f~rrnrr.c nr-pasrTC raTHrC CT ayty