Evening star., 1921-02-06
STATES TAKE RAPID STRIDES
IN LINCOLN HIGHWAY BUILDING
Total of 548 Miles of Actual Improvement
Added to Longest Continuous Perma-
nent Thoroug ghfare In World.

DETROIT. Mich.-In checking the
at the end of 1920
officials of the Lincoln Highway AS
sociation express themselves as
pleased with the progress made in
the Improvement of the great trans
route during the year
passed. Each state traversed by the
Lincoln highway from the Atlantic to
the Pacific has done all that it was
able to accomplish during
the year. Nowhere did lack of money
hamper the work.
AS a result 54S miles of actual i'm
provement have been added to the
great thoroughfare. That is 16 per
cent Of the total length of the road.
The money spent in bringing about
this construction on the Lincoln high
way in 1920 fell but little short of the
total expended in 1919. which repre-
sented the high point in cash invest
ment on the Lincoln way in any one
year.
Had it not been for physical handi-
tion facilities. the lack of building
materials, the high price and preva-
lent shortage of labor, the condition
of the securities market affecting the
sale of bonds for road building, and
the extreme reluctance on the part
of reputable contractors to under
take road work in consequence, it is
an assured fact that 1920 would have
seen greater outlay for building
the Lincoln way than did any year in
the past. Much of the work contem-
plated for 1920 has Of necessity been
carried over into 1921, and accordingly
the Lincoln Highway Association is
enthusiastically anticipating a new year
of splendid results.
Briefly stated. the states traversed
by the Lincoln highway have to their
credit, at the end of 1920, the follow
ing in the way of actual construction
upon the Lincoln highway:
New Jersey.
New Jersey completed fourteen
miles Of eighteen-foot concrete con-
struction. ten and one-half inches
thick at the sides, with three-foot
bituminous macadam shoulders. con-
tinuous. with the concrete at the
sides and with three-foot dirt beams
outside of the macadam shoulders.
making a total width Of grade Of
thirty feet. This new sectioN Of the
highway is one of the high
est types of modern highway to be
found in the United States. In addi.
tion to the section described, New
Jersey maintained some forty miles
of additional Lincoln highway, and
altogether invested total of $6sS.2s1:
The state highway department OF
New Jersey advises that the states
plans provide for a continuous pro.
gram of improvement OF the same
type mentioned as rapidly as the
work can be accomplished.
PennayIvanin.
No final figures are as yet availa-
BILE as to the expenditures upon the
Lincoln highway in Pennsylvania
tive estimate places the total at
$1.662000. Pennsylvania is following
the same plan as New Jersey in re-
placing the worn macadam sections
of the Lincoln highway with perma-
nent concrete. Eleven miles of re-
Lancaster county in 1920. and nine
teen miles of the same type leading
west from Gettysburg to Chambers
burg. Due to the popularity of and
resultant heavy traffic upon the Lin
coin highway in Pennsylvania main:
this. together with the necessary
expense of snow removal during
the winter, cost not less than half
a million dollars. Included in the
budget for 1920 Lin
coin highway improvement was the
one of the finest bridges upon the
Lincoln highway. The total expendi-
lures for this state do not include
local or municipal contracts, which
make the total much greater.
Ohio.
Ohio was able to complete but 1875
miles of standard construction upon
the Lincoln highway of total OF
close to IS miles contemplated at the
of the year. New contracts
for 53.7 miles were let. the work COM
pleted costing $507.612.14. 1t Is in
teresting to note that every foot of
the Lincoln highway across the state
Of Ohio is either completed OF brick.
concrete. macadam, asphalt. or as
phaltic concrete or under contract for
with one OF these types.
Indiana planned to build forty miles
Of concrete on the Lincoln highway
in 1920. Her best efforts, however.
resulted in the construction Of but ten
miles of road. costing $294.746.41.
Like Ohio. Indiana will have to carry
permanent improvement of the Lin
coin highway into 1921.
Illfn0is.
Every possible effort was made in
Illinois last year to carry through to
the work started upon the
Lincoln highway. Consequently the
state was able to boast at the end of
the year of fifty-one miles of new
concrete between Geneva
and the Mississippi river, the cost of
which was $2.1S0. 900. Contrasted with
the mud which frightened the tour
lists off two or three years ago, Illi-
nois now has on the Lincoln highway
one OF the longest continuous
stretches of permanent improvement
on the route between the two coasts.
With the 1920 work the grading of
the Lincoln highway across Iowa was
practically completed and nearly all
Of the bridges upon the route in this
state have been constructed of con-
crete. For grading. graveling, paw
ing. tiling and subdrainage, new
bridges and culverts. Iowa spent
$525.S45 during the year. and this, to-
gether with other expenditures, such
as the Strengthening Of curves and
the elemination Of railroad crossings
made a total for Lincoln highway i'm
provement Of $643,545.
At the present time about half of
the Lincoln highway in Iowa is grav-
eled. The efforts of this year will be
in the building Of concrete, several
sections OF which are under contract,
and completing the ungraveled sec
tions Of the road.
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