The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-26
DETAILED WORK OF CONSTRUCTING
HARD ROADS OUT OF GENESEO TOLD
BY HIGHWAY COMMISSION MEMBER

ed some ground from Jacob and
Roy Leibee just east of the Ellis
berry Seed Corn house. Here they
have constructed their plant for
unloading sand and gravel from the
railroad and then loading their
tram cars with the materials to be
taken to the scene of construc-
ton A large storehouse for the
storage of cement has been built
A net work of tracks for their tram
cars and locomotives covers this
site. An automatic loading device
is arranged by the construction OF
a tunnel in which are laid tracks
for the trans. A train is made
up of a locomotive with gasoline
motive power, hauling eight cars
After the train has reached the
scene of road construction the
boxes are taken from the cars by
a hoist attached to the concrete
mixer and empied automatically
into the large scoop. This mixer
is one of the largest portable mix
ers on the market 1t has mixing
capacity of five sacks OF cement,
ten cubic feet of sand and seven
teen and a half cubic feet OF graV-
ell.
After the mixture is run upon
the roadbed and distributed by
workmen with shovels a most in
teresting operation follows. A
machine is operated which estab-
fishes the crown of the cement bed,
also does the tamping and finally
does the finishing.
The general supervision Of this
contract work is done from the dis
trict office of the Illinois highway
commission at Dixon, Ill. This Of
fee is in charge of all hard road
work in ten of the northwestern
counties of the state. The state
representative present at the first
concrete work done yesterday aft
ernoon was o. F. Cooke, from Dix
on, who gave The Argus detailed in
formation of the construction work.
MIR. Cooke has been identified with
the state commission for a num-
Der of years and is well informed
on hard road construction work. He
will come from Dixon once or twice
a week, the daily inspection being
made by Vernon Smiley, who has
been in Geneseo since the first sur
Veying was done.
There is a great deal of discus
sion among the people of Geneseo
relative to the paving to be doue
in the city to connect with the roads
now under contract. 1t is the opin-
ion of some of the residents along
the streets which lead to these
roads to have the paving in the
city done by the Dunnegan company
while it has it's equipment here. 1t
is still a matter of doubt whether
the state assumes any portion Of
the cost within city limits. The Old
law called upon the state to as
sumo the cost within places of $500
or less population. A law passed
by the last session of the legisla-
tUre raised the population limit to
5000. What Geneseo's position may
be has not been definitely set forth.
Mr.. Cooke stated that the work
west of Geneseo will be complet-
ed this fall. The Dunnegan COM
pany also has the contract leading
from the end of the paving at Sill
Wis, through Carbon Cliff and across
Rock river bridge at Colona.
From the corner at Tom Reese's
farm just at the railroad crossing
the hard road will carry south over
the Hennepin canal, a distance OF
one mile 1t will then go east
across the Green river bridge to
the next intersection, a distance
slightly more than a mile. This is
as far as this contract carries the
work and it is likely that this
stretch will also be completed this
fall. On the road between these
points grading, filling and culveIt
and bridge work is being done.
This will be surfaced next year.