Milford chronicle., 1920-12-10
SOME FACTS ABOUT ROADS

Jack Frost and Merry Sunshine are
wrnkling the brOws OF highway engi-
neers and contractors. Their pranks
are running expensive hard-surfaced
and paved highways.
During the winter months, frost
penetrates deep under the road sur
face, freezing and re-freezing the sub
soil numerous times. Then, just like
freezing water breaks the water pipe,
the sub-soil bulges up and cracks the
surface of the highway. Rain and
slush seeps through these cracks,
freezes again, and the process of de-
struction goes merrily on.
/ When spring comes, the final
touches are put on the breaking up
of the road. The spring rains rush
through the yawning cracks and wash
away the sub-soil, leaving a hollow
shell. The warm sunshine aids in the
destruction, drying the surface and
making it brittle. It's no time then
until the road crumbles away under
the heavy traffic impacts.
Highway engineers of the b. f.
Goodrich Rubber Companys travel
and transport bureau declare that
rapidly increasing highway travel is
focusing the attention of road build
ing experts to this underlying cause
of highway destruction. They say that
governmental and private agencies
have, in the past ten years, lost sight
of adequate sub-grade soil treatment
in their eagerness to produce hard,
wear-resisting surfaces for highways.
Men prominent in highway develop
ment say the bureaus experts, now
recognize the urgent need of spend
/ ing the necessary time and money to
build proper road foundations and
drainages before expensive stretches
of highways are constructed. Search
/ ing study and analysis of sub-sOils
will figure more prominently in fu-
ture road building than any other
phase of the work, they say.
A transcontinental hard-surfaced
highway stretching from New York
to San Francisco could be built with
the money which American motorists
will save next year as the result of
the recent reductions in the price of
automobile tires and tubes. What's
more, enough money could be left ov-
er to build a first-class battleship for
Uncle Sam.
The recent reduction in the prices
of tires and inner tubes will mean
saving to the 100000 American mo-
torists, says the b. f. Goodrich Rub
ber Company, of approximately $780,
100000 In other words, the country's
annual tire bill of about S1,000,000,000
will be chopped down to $3.50, 900.
Anyone who has trouble in juggling
such big figures can get an idea of
what this saving will amount to by
remembering that mile of good hard
surfaced, durable highway can be
built in most sections of the coun-
try for $4,000, and that a cross
country road could therefore be built
with the amount sayed-with quite a
few millions left over.
The average motorists tire bill for
a year amounts to about $125. Next
year, because of the reduced prices,
S1775 will be Topped off of this
amount. This individual saving does
not appear large but when it is con-
that 100000 motorists will
save the same amount, the total climbs
to dizzy height.
The reduction in tire prices is ex-
pected by the Goodrich Company to
stimulate the increased use of motor |
cars, because a decrease in the cost |
Of motoring tends to influence many /
car owners into the buy
me mood.