Imperial Valley press., 1921-08-23
BOARD
MAKES HOT
ANSWER To
ATTACK
Recent Criticism of Imperial
Valley Highway by Auto
mobile Club Shown to Be
Without Foundation.

Nothing could more clearly eXempli-
fy the utter disregard of facts in the
publicity being issued by the Auto
mobile Club of Southern California
in its political attack upon the Cali
fornia Highway Commission than its
recent statement relative to construc-
tion on the Imperial Valley Highway.
The commission is taken to task for
an alleged "piece meal policy" of con-
struction and the allegation is made
that the people Of the valley are there
by being denied the use of completed
road The inference is left that this
highway was an original bond issue
road.
The Auto Club further says:
"Permission to sell highway bonds
during the war was denied by the Cap
ital Issues Committee for the stated
reason of piecemeal construction pol
icy. The government committee, how
ever, specially stated that it would
consider an application to sell bonds
for the purpose Of completing trunk
line or important lateral"
There is not one iota of truth in the
above charge. The Capital Issues Com
State Highway bonds through de-
sire to promote the flotation of Gov
ernment securities and not because
of any construction policy of the Cal
ifornia Highway Commission
Out Of request on the part of the
Commission to sell $4,000,000 in bonds
to proceed with the essential construc-
ton, the Capital Issues Committee
granted permission for the sale of only
100000 for the entire State program
In any event, construction of the I'M
perial Valley Road could not have
been effected because of its peculiar
status.
The Imperial Valley Highway came
into the State system as coopera-
tive lateral in the 1915 bond issue
which was carried in the fall Of 1916
There were seven routes included and
So ,O00, 900 was set aside for the States
participation, the counties through
which the roads passed were to put
up the balance of the total cost,
roughly estimated at $9.000,000.
The entire history of the road is
given in the First Biennial Report of
the California Highway Commission
and was available to the Auto Club
officials when their untruthful state
ment was prepared. According to that
report, counties in interest met with
the Commission at Sacramento in
September, 1917 to arrange basis
for allotment between different lat
erals and for county participation.
The cost of the Imperial Valley
Road was fixed at $2,26O,OOO, the
State'sportion $756,000, and the coun-
ties portion 81 1,504,000.
However, under the cooperative
plan, the Counties found the burden
of expense under war conditions, too
much for any of them to bear, there
fore, neither the state nor the coun
ties were able to provide funds for
appreciable construction on these lat
erals.
The only construction on any OF
them was on the Imperial Valley high
way on which line San Bernardino and
Riverside Counties had already done
some work on County Highways for
which credit might be allowed towards
cooperative payments, and Imperial
county agreed to raise 100000.
With this modest beginning the
state sought to overcome the two great
est physical obstacles to travel by
piercing the sand hills between Ell
Centre and Yuma by means of a
planked road and by bridging the
desert gap along the Salton Seas by
an eight foot concrete highway with
turnouts every thousand feet.
AS soon as the passage of the $4O,.
900 900 bond issue made certain the
taking over by the state of the coun-
ties portion of the expense of building
this highway, amounting to two thirds
of it's total cost, the commission inn
mediately increased the width of the
pavemen from eight to fifteen feet.
Since securing construction funds
some Of the fastest and most efficien