Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-24

tLonLlnue0 FROM rage One.1
way commission of Indiana can be broad
ly divided into three counts.
1. Their width is not sufficient
and their depth is not sufficient to
accommodate the traffic they must
endure.
:. They are not being laid out with
view to meeting the demands OF
transportation for savings on grades.
elimination of curves end general
economy in motor operation
3. They are of type that shows
an apparent saving in initial cost,
but which has been found in other
states to be exceedingly costly to
maintain and in the long run "A great
deal more expensive than good roads
properly built.
The proof of the first count lies In a
comparison of the type Of roads Indiana
is building with the type that has been
adopted by New York as a result OF
twenty lone years Of road building ex-
perience. Indiana is laying miles OF
cement concrete roads, sixteen feet wide
four inches deep, and expecting them
to serve as trunk lines through the
state.
EXPERT DESCRIBES
NARROW ROAD MENACE.
Writing in the Engineering News
Record for September, 1919 H E. Breed,
formerly first deputy commissioner OF
highways for New York, said:
An improved road that is also a mar
row road is menace. 1t attracts to
itself more traffic that It can accommo-
date, and resultant wrecks strew its
shoulders. No main highway should be
designed less than twenty feet for pave
ant e.
bitches. Subsidiary roads should be at
least sixteen feet with shoulders ex
tended to twenty six feet and curves
wfdened from four to eight feet for
safety. All highways when built should
he designed so readily to permit add
tionsl widening"
Indiana's commission not only has
standardized the sixteen foot road but
has made no provision for widening at
curves or IN the hereafter
As to depth, Mr.. Breed wrote:
1T is fair to say that no new road
or road TO be reconstructed should be
built with a foundation of less than
nine inches If it be of broken stone
and the depth should range from that
according to prospective traffic on the
road, up to fifteen inches, which is the
lowest possible allowance for through
routes.
"A concrete foundation should he at
least six inches deep and should range
from that, according to prospective
traffic and type of surface selected, to
nine inches on through routes"
Since 1907 New York state has been
concerned with the alignment Of it's
roads and has worked out a formula
which is applied to grades and curves.
Mr.. Breed says: IF the saving in fuel
is greater than 4 per cent Of the ex-
penditure necessary to eIiminte the
curye, then the expenditure is war
ranted." The fuel saving is estimated
by noting the fuel requirement to bring
a car back in original momentum after
slowing for the curve and multiplying
this figure by count of the average
traffic around the curve.
CURVES AND GRADES
ARE NEGLECTED.
No attempt has been made to avoid
curves or to reduce grades in the de-
signing of Indiana roads, and repeat
cdly the most costly routes have been
adopted by the commission, often with
out regard either to the grade or the
curves that will be necessary.
Road building by the highway commits
sion in Indiana has been confined al
most exclusively to the cement surface
type known as the cheapest possible con-
struction that pretends to be "dura BILE
New York state does not build roads