The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1921-05-05
State Prepares to Patrol
1000 Miles Trunk Highways

I equipment. They have dirt roads to
work with instead of macadam, Of
course, and it will be constant fight
to keep them in shape.
BabcOck to Determine Routes.
Until almost the last day OF the
! legislative session, Commissioner
Babcock and his assistants were in
attendance constantly on the commit
tees that were framing the road leg
islation, and were able to do little
else. Now that the bills have been
passed they are being studied an !
policies mapped out. The 16 divis-
ion and maintenance engineers were
in last week for a conference with
Mr.. Babcock, his first assistant, J. H.
Mullen, and other engineers in the
maintenance office.
One of the subjects of this confer
ence was temporary routings for the
trunk highways. The new law al
lows Mr.. Babcock the final say as to
routes. The Babcock constitutional
amendment merely names the main
towns to be served by each route. The
exact line is to be laid out by the
commissioner and he may fix temper
airy routes first, to be maintained as
part of the system, but subject 20
change.
81 expect to determine the temper
airy routes just as soon as possible
said Mr.. Babcock Saturday. "These
routes will be marked with plain but
not elaborate signs. When the per-
manent routes have been established
first class road markers will be put
up for the guidance of motorists"
Total Estimated at S25,00O,0OO
The Babcock amendment authoriz-
es the state to issue S10,000,0OO a
year in bonds for road building. The
recent legislature did not take adj
vantage of this feature. 1t did, how
ever, keep faith with the implied
promise to counties issuing bonds for
work on the trunk highways. The
state by law assumed responsibility
for ali these bonds, and in most cases
for the interest on them. The total
of county bond issues outstanding or
to be issued is estimated at $25, 000,-
900. Commissioner Babcock outlined
Saturday the stages by which this
county money is to come into the
trunk highway system, later to be re-
turned to the counties by the state.
Completed Work Totals S9,0O0,000.
Work already completed by the
counties under the authority of the
1919 legislature totals roughly So
100000.
Work under contract or to- be con-
tracted and paid for in the coming
year, ending July 1, 1922, totals S.
100000.
Work to be put through in 1923,
100000.
Work planned to be put through in
1924, $5,O00,000.
This county work has been held
back, MI. Babcock said, because last
fall when costs were at their peak he
declined to approve contracts and re-
quired the counties to wait. By wait
ing he saved hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
Road building costs have fallen
from the peak prices of 1920, as es-
timated Saturday by John H. Mullen,
Commissioner Babcock's engineering
standby and first assistant, about 80
per cent for grading and gravelling,
and some 20 per cent for paving.
The reason paving shows a less
marked decline is that freight costs
on the paving materials are such a
big item, and they are higher than
ever. For every mile of hard sur
faced road there is required so car
loads of crushed rock, 40 cars of sand,
20 cars of cement, and 10000 pounds
of steel. This makes an 1S-foot
roadway, with a surface 71a inches
thick, reinforced by steel bars along
each side and every eight feet ira
versly. Thing is included where
drainage is needed. Such surface
today costs $4,000 to $4,000 mile.
Half Estimated for Paving.
About half the county money being
put into trunk highways is going for
paving, Mr.. Babcock estimates. But
the state law recently passed limits
the use of state funds for hard sur
facing to onc-third the total outlay
for construction. With the current
state and federal funds expected in
the next two years, this allows of
only $2,000,000 a year for paving,
which which will surface only about
| 70 miles of road.
Paved roads promote motor truck
traffic, and these motor truck lines
tend to go beyond the paved road
ways to the graveled roads. There
has been trouble this year and last
with trucks going on the roads when
they were soft in the spring, and
tearing them up SO as to make them
impossible, or nearly so.
" A provision in the new road law
gives the highway commissioner a
check on this practise. 1t enables