Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-09-16
HIGHWAY
DIRECTOR GIVES
OUT SOME FACTS
Headquarters Established in
Five Districts Facilitate
Working Plan.
ROADS TO BE NUMBERED

The "skip-stop" method Of road build
ing which has been such an annoyance
to travellers in Indiana, is to be aban-
doned, according to Lawrence Lyons, di-
rector Of the State highway commission.
Tins far roads have been built for short
distances at a time, In many cases
leaving gaps between the portions i'm
proved According to Mr.. Lyons, the
policy hereafter viii be to start the i'm
proYement of a road and to carry it d.
rectly through to completion.
The Indiana State highway system
comprises $500 miles and it is proposed
to extend this to approximately 5000
miles eventually, commission members
say. Such 4 program, however, is ex-
pected to extend over period Of ten
or fifteen years.
OF the $500 miles in the State system,
414.7 miles are OF concrete, with a total
Of about 600 miles hard surface pave
ment. OF this number the State high
way department paved 112 miles and has
under contract at this time twenty miles
to be paved, exclusive of the 600 miles
aforementioned. During the fiscal year
which ends Sept. 60 the department will
have laid seventy miles of pavement,
deemed by the officials a record for road
building when 1t is taken into cOnsidera-
ton that efforts were principally directed
at closing gaps in roads partially paved
For maintenance purposes Indiana's
State highway system today. according
to AR. Lyons, is divided into FIVE dis
tricts with district headquarters at Fl
Wayne. Greenfield, Seymour, MONTICELLO,
and Yincennes. Each district is divided
into FIVE sub districts with headquarters
as follows.
TT. Wayne District-Wabash, Warsaw.
Plymouth, KendallvilIe.
Greenfield District-Lebanon, Anderson,
Muncie, Connersville, Charlottesville.
Vfncennes District-Terre Haute, Paoi,
Dale, Patoka-
Monticello Dfstrict-Ya lparaiso. La
Porte Rensselaer,, Fowler.
Seymour District-New Albany. Aurora,
Columbus, MartinsyiIle.
In the opinion Of Mr.. Lyons in order
to take mp Federal aid money available
for Indiana, it may be necessary to
hard surface such main highways as the
National read, Lincoln highway. Yellow
stone Trail, and the road from South
Bend TO Indianapolis and Louisville
Where possible he says. in adherence 10
the policy Of Governor Warren T. Nc
Cray. ali secondary routes viii he sur
faced with stone. gravel. bituminOus or
made of TIE water bound type
One of the first efforts of the depart
msnt viii be to push to completion the
National road project. There remains
sixty 1--WE miles to pave. and it is pro-
spOsed to divide this stretch into eight
sections or contracts and expedite the
WORK so the road viii be completed in
Indiana in 1922. In the event of such.
and providing Illinois speeds up the work
in the Prairie State. the National road
will be hard-surfaced next year all the
way from Washington to St Louis In
diana and Illinois are the only two States
where work On this national thoroughfare
is delayed, Mr. Lyons says.
= Attention is called by Mr.. Lyons that
all roads included in the State highway
system, OF which there are ffty-one are
designated by number and stencil of the
State map on telephone poles to either
side Of the highway. This feature,
adopted some months ago. has proved
invaluable to overland traffic he said