Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-16
STATE HIGHWAY CONTRACTS
 AWARDED FOR s307 .ooo

The Connecticut Highway department has let two contracts for new stretches Of state highway involving S3o1.0oe. One new stretch of highway is psing | laid between Brooklyn and Hampton. | length Of five miles. which IS to cost | slss. .000 and for which the contract has | been let to John Arborio Of New Haven | A three mile piece of highway will hc laid between Columbia and Herboa which is to cost slil.0oo. Linberg & Stree of Boston are the contractors fer this job.
 Work on the highways under cons;rrc- ton which has been held up during ihe summer because of failure 10 obtain e. ment Is now being pushed with Nigor as large quantities of cement have ar rived Despite the heavy showers over the state during the summer state high ways have suffered very little from them
 which enables the department to devote all its energies 10 the building of new highways. A report was received from
 town recently after heavy shower
 that was a washer. saying, "Everything
 washed away out here except the s.ate
 highway"
 In addition to the two new contracts
 recently Jet. the department has four
 large projects in hand three of which
 will be carried near 10 completion this | fall The Thomaston-East Litchfield
 stretch of seven and one-haf miles 9 l s400, 900 project, is about half complet- ed. A new road bed is being laid and
 will be finished with concrete.
 The Cedar Hill-Berlin highway resur- facing job on eight miles of the Berlin turnpike is also about half completed. This will cost $500, GOO and will be fin ished before winter. This is a twenty hoe mt
 been dLturbed by the resurfacing with concrete.
 The department has two federal pro jects under way. One. involving stretches
 of highway between Glastonbury and this
 city, totailing thirty-two HEes, which
 is to cost s1.s00, 900. This road Is be-
 ing built under the federal aid plan whereby the federal government pays back to this state ss42.o0 on the pro- | ject Excavating has been begun tc
 the north and the south of Colchester , Charles W. Blakeslee & Son of New Haven. are doing the work.
 The second federal project Is on the , Bethel. Bedding and Easton highway l and is to cost s515.000. which is o-si I half completed The federal govern ment is to refund the state s157.5oo or { this proposition. Francesci Valerie i,
 the contractor.
 . The highway department is finding th' !. labor situation less difficult than a veal \ ago. Wages vary from s3.50 to s pel [ day. Highest wages are paid in thi r district of the state where living condi = tions are highest. Actually the men ar' c receiving about an equal wage consid T ering all the circumstances under whicl y they work.
 The department is saving the stat n from sso.OoO to s4o.o0o year in thl a use of it's own trucks, of which # nov y owns a fleet of 125. ninety of whicl were obtained from United States wa '. department after the signing of tn !. arrnistice. Each trutk is set 10 earn It certain wage, about the wage contrac
 tors ask for trucks. and this wage ] = placed as an expense item in the proiec V on which the truck Is working. Tn e difference between this wage. around g.
 co per hour. and actual expense involy ,f cd in the purchase and upkeep Of th c truck is turned back 10 the state as
 profit for owning it's own trucks. Tn 10 cidentally. too. the department is ahl ,e to judge what is a fair wage for trucl; o when it hires them. All contractor l. present a heavy item in their bids fo l. trucking and the department is mslzln r. a profit on all equipments 1t owns
 this way.