Imperial Valley press., 1920-03-04
|. A. IMPERIAL
HIGHWAY TO
Be FINISHED
IN N3YEARS|
Two Contracts Let Yester-
day for Roads; State
Highway Commissioner
Explains Why Route Has
Been Held Up; Situation
to Be Remedied.

Two contracts to build stretches of
the state highway between Los An
geles and Imperial Valley have been
let and, in addition. one crew is
working with day labor under the
state highway commission and another
will begin work next week, it was
announced by the California highway
commission yesterday. Particular at
tention is being given now to some
bad stretches of road on the desert so
that by the coming summer these
places will be paved and the entire
road in usable condition. The COM
mission proposes to have the entire
highway from Los Angeles to and
through Imperial Valley and to Yuma
paved and completed three years from
the coming summer.
Of the 56-mile stretch between In
dio and Trifolium, nine miles o froad
have been paved to width of 15sfeet
by the state and Riverside county.
The contract for 14.23 miles from Tri-
folium to the Imperial county line has
been awarded to Charles Stotaras, who
will begin work netX week. This will
be a paved road, Is feet wide, and
will be completed next fall.
Bids for construction of Is miles
of road south of that being built by
Sotaras were advertised, but none
was received, so the commission has
organized crew to built a 15-foot
paved highway on the worst stretch of
the desert Work is just beginning
at that point and will be continued
Until the summer heat requires ces-
sation of operations. Work on this
stretch will be resumed next fall and
that paved highway will be completed
within a year.
Another crew has already built four
miles of the stretch from Kane Springs
to Tule Wash and will complete that
highway this spring. Twelve miles
of eight-foot paving were put in near
Kane Springs by the state and River
side county. This road will be wild
ened or rebuilt eventually. The 20
miles from Brawley to Trifoluim and
the road from Brawley to Ell Centra
be paved within three years, immediate
operations being concentrated on the
desert stretches with view to max
ing the road safe and passable this
summer.
From Indio north there is a fair
highway from Beaumont to the San
Bernardino county line has been con-
tracted for and the contractor is about
to begin work. East of Holtville the
state is building one mile of expert
mental road to help in determining the
best kind of construction for the high
way through the sand hills to Yuma.
N. ID. Darlington, chairman of the
California highway commission said
yesterday that there will be no delay
in completing the highway from Los
Angeles to the Imperial Valley and
that Notwithstanding the largely in
creased cost of highway construction
the appropriation made available by
the $40 200. 900 bond issue of last year
will provide for the entire highway.
The commissions program, he says,
calls for the completion of the entire
road by three years from the coming
summer.
In reply to criticisms that have
been made that the road has been
unduly held up Mr.. Darlington said
that the SIS, 100000 bond issue of 1910
did not provide for the Imperial high
way at all, that the 1915 issue of $15,-
100000 only provided for joint work
with the counties which work could
not be carried on because the counties
were unable to make adequate appro-
priations.
The 1919 issue, he says, was the
first definite provision for building
the highway and the state commission
has proceeded definitely and promptly
since the money was made available
to build the road. Mr.. Darlington re-