The Penn's Grove record., 1921-09-16
County FreehOlders
Consider Bridges
Three Bridge Contracts Given
Fewer Prisoners In County
Jail

jail
The dangerous condition of Courses
Landing Bridge, No. 400, in conjunc-
ton with the accident that occurred
at the bridge in Chester last Satur-
day, brought forth a most serious dis
cuSslon on the matter of bridges and
the present practice of allowing
trucks of many tons overweight using
them, at the regular monthly meet
ing of the Salem County Board of
Chosen F~reeholders on Wednesday.
1t was after the Board had listened
to the report Of the Bridge Committee
on the condition of the bridge and the
work that will be necessary to make
it safe that Mr.. Pancoast wanted to
know whether the Bridge and Finance
Committees were looking into the
matter of the safety of all other
bridges in the County that are not new
OF have not as yet been put in good
repair. He thought that this was a
very important matter that should
concern the Board the next five years
with the capacity of trucks rapidly
increasing. There was one bridge in
Canton that was not near heavy
enough for the traffic to which
it is subjected. There are many other
bridges where accidents that may be
very serious are liable to happen and
the Board should not delay in having
an inspection sc that something can
be done.
Director Gray said that the matter
of the heavy truck traffic was some
thing that had not been foreseen by
anyone. He did not think they should
sit quietly and do nothing.
Mr.. Weldon said there was one
thing should be done by all means and
that was to test the bridges. Under
the present law we should not license a
man to drive a truck and then not
provide him with safe bridges which
is after all a part of the road. There
must be a means of travel for this
man. If he loads a truck of 10000
pounds in Salem he must have a mean
of getting GU of the city and it is the
same with other towns.
MI. keasbey stated that the original
Act plainly intended to leave the mat
ter Of capacity of bridges to the judg-
ment of the Boards of F~reeholders.
They were to decide as to how strong
a bridge should be. In order to bring
all the bridges in the State up to a
strength that would be sure to with
stand all the strain to which they are
put would require the expenditure of
a tremendous sum of money. The
posting Of the capacity of a bridge
plainly was one of the safeguards
against accident. In Salem County
the system of posting bridges vas bet
ter than in many others. The driver
with an overloaded truck was crossing
a bridge under those circumstances
at his own risk. Mr.. Weldon said that
conditions had changed greatly in the
last eight years and we cannot work
back but must look forward. He sug-
gested that on each of the signs at
the bridges the words "Speed law will
be enforced" should be added to the
rest of the notice, and then the law
should be carried out with those who
ignored it.
Farmers Want a Good Road
Twelve farmers and property own
ers of Upper Pittsgrove Township
were given a hearing at the morning
session on the condition of the road
from Daretown to Monroeville. They
NGIC llCdlIth ny = a 1SOOliloOIl, III
Assessor of the Township, who with
others of the delegation made a strong
plea that the road should be rebuilt.
At present it is practically impossible
in some places and is dangerous thru
out. 1t was claimed that the farmers
could have received ten cents more
per basket for their tomatoes if they
could have taken them owe this road
to DaretoWn instead of dispOsing of
them at Monroeville. They had been
promised that the road camp would be
removed to this road when it was fin
ished with the road now being worked
on, but they heard that this "a not
to be done. This Township has the
largest number of miles of County
roads of any other Township but had
no good ones. They had waited ten
years for this road to be made right.
The matter was referred to the Road
Committee to report back at the next
meeting of the Board.
Contract For Three Bridges
Upon the recommendation of the
Bridge Committee the Board accepted
the bid of Joseph J. Kucher, of Spring
Valley, N. Y, and awarded him the
contract for constructing the three
bridges on the Shirley-Oldmans Creek
road, section 5 of route 6, State High
way. The cost of constructing these
bridges will be charged to the amount
appropriated for the construction of
this section of the road. The Bridge
Committee had met on Wednesday of
last week and opened the bids for
these bridges as follows:
J. J.. Kucher, Spring Valley,
N. Y.
Walter s Bawn, Salem, N. j., S6,707
VIM. II Slough, Allowav, .S9,172
Jail and Road Camp
The Committees reported 10 prison
i. H. Cn,1otr iail aud % in the |