Arizona republican., 1921-12-16
State Highway Officials Discuss New Federal Aid Bill At Meeting At Omaha
SS Thomas Maddoek, Arizona State
 Engineer

sy Thomas Maddoek, Arizona State
 Engineer
 The Association of State Highway
 AaS2ais. together with the engineers " Nhe bureau of public roads, had a sp4enoed meeting for four days at 4laaos- Dec to s, inclusive. Bridge eAsineers from nearly every state in s sle union were present and discussed 1sae acvlsability of uniform bridge de- ssn and construction.
 Many interesting engineering pa- tSsr .. ere read and discussed, but the LIncipsl point of interest for most of R officials was the discussion and inrerpretation of the new federal aid AsshNay act, signed by President Harding on Nov. g.
 The paper of MT. Goldbeck, engin- Ger of tests for the bureau of public roads, covered the results obtained krom more than a year of United -.sres tests on pavements made at Arlington, Va, while Clifford Older, state highway engineer of Illinois, in discussing this paper. compared the cata secured with that obtained by the state of Illinois. which has ex- pended some S2o0.000 on similar in- TeStigation in the last two years. The tests being made at Pittsburg. Cal, were not complete, but should be finished within the next three months. IL is expected that these papers will be printed soon for the use of the highway engineers all over the United States Many papers and discussions covered such questions as the ad visibility of eliminating grade cross- sEbs where highways cross railroad tracks. Mir. Hurst of Wisconsin even advocated the separation of the grades where main highways inter- sect and extra heavy traffic prevails.
 The committee on standards under the chairmanship of MT. Uhler. state engineer of Pennsylvania. has com pared the various standards in every state in the United States in respect 10 rights-of-way. tree planting, drainage. guard rails. width, thick ness and loading, carbs, crown and super elevation of pavings, maximum grades. also the slopes and shoulders on paving work The committee ad- vocates the building of all double track paving not less than IS feet wide, the securing of wide rights-of- way for future developments and keeping ruling grades down to 6 per cent, the use of greater super-eleva- ticn on curves than now and the widening of shoulders to permit room for ,ars to park without interfering with traffic on the pavements. In the Eastern states tree planting has been extended to such an extent that telephone lines are being reconstruct cd in order to protect the shade trees.
 The director of the bureau of pub lie roads in his talk to the state en- Fineers indicated that if nything the federal requirements will be higher than formerly and that the per cent system of the various states chosen for. federal aid on account Of their superior necessity to the other roads rsust join at state boundaries to form interstate lines of communication.
 Apparently the desire, as far as the West is concerned, is to strengthen the authority of the regional head quarters at San Francisco, establish ing a disbursement office there to ex- pedite the payment of vouchers, and elso make arrangements to have projects approved at San Francisco, where those in authority will be per- haps better acquainted with the local conditions in the West than the per- sonnel of the Washington office.
 There exists considerabel difference of opinion as to the expenditure of the si5.000.000 forest road fund i'm ri1ded in the recent feseral aid bill. Obviously s5,500o.000 of this can be expended by the secretary of agri- culture wherever he desires. There fs nothing to prevent it all being EOe0f Tn OQe Gtdle- 1Hc 4SDld1iiiliS, S9Se0 poo must be spent in the forest states in the proportion of the area and value of forest lands. All of the representatives of the forest states a. a conference with the director Oi the bureau of public roads, Mir. Mac Donald. and Assistant Forester Sher- man. requested that the ss.5o0,0o0 re- rnaining be spent on Forest roads or the through state highway system as adopted in the per cent program until all of these roads are con structed. They also requested tha the secretary, if possible, in dealint with the states on road matters, worl through the bureau of public road alone rather than through both thi department and the forest depart ment. in order to simplify and expe dite the handling of state and fedora business
 The forest appropriation of $15,