Evening star., 1921-10-09
PLANS COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY
OF u. S. HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT

munity. the mileage improved with
each of the several distinctive types
of surfacing. the mileage under
systematic maintenance. as well as
to what extent the road mileage has
been classified, and the mileage en-
| braced in such classified systems.
In order that we may know some
thing as to whether the cost of the
roads is distributed in accordance
with the benefits derived. the investi-
i cation will include survey of the
various sources from which the funds
are derived for construction Of roads
of bridges. and also for maintenance
together with the amount from each
source.
Cost OF Maintenance.
Data will also be collected relative
to the total Investment in road
machinery and equipment and the ex-
, leuditureS | for lis repair and MAIN
ttnance. At present not even ap-
! i-,cximate informatioa is availa bic
as to the amount invested by the
states. counties, cities, towns and
I other communities in road building
and maintenance. plant, ma achinery
and .quil uent. nor as to how much
is expended annually for it's MAIN
tenance and repair.
II is believed by the bureau that
with the total annual road and street
expenditures rapidly approaching the
billion dollar mark. it is time that
! the nation made Il careful survey of
the entire field OF ublic-highway ac-
tiyitieS in order that it may have
at least as much accurate information
in regard to the essential features of
highway work as private organiZa-
tion would hold absolutely indispen-
sible in the interest of common sense.
efficiency and economy The present
plants provide not only for securing
Ia hyIf
ward to keeping this information up
to date.
There are thirteen federal district
offices controlled by the bureau of
public roads. 1t is proposed to make
these Offices the centers for gathering
the data from the states comprising
each district. In few states the
state highway department files con-
tain nearly all of the rural-road data
desired, and the bureu hopes that in
time all state highway departments
will be in similar touch with the road
work within their respective states.
In many states, however, it will be
necessary to go to the counties. towns,
townships and even special road dis
tricrs for the data.
Universal Co-Operntion Essential.
t The bureau feels that to make this
survey a success the cooperation of
every unit of government-going road
work in the nation is essential, and,
therefore. requests the earnest as
sistance and cooperation of not only
all road officials, but Of all associa-
tions, organizations. or individuals
that may have any information or
data as to these particular lines of
! local highway activities.
1t is apparent that no single unit
of government doing road work
should be omitted in gathering these
data. The federal agents recognize
! that in some of the smaller units
there is no centralized control and
there are no complete records. Here
the local motorists or others can give
material assistance in checking up
by speedometer readings the total
road mileage within the unit as well
as mileages of the various types. Fu-
ture legislation no doubt will be based
upon percentages of road mileage 1t is
therefore essential that each unit has
its total as we'll as it's improved road
mileage carefully recorded in this
survey.
1t is pointed out by the federal
agents also that if future records are
kept in accordance with the forms
adopted for this survey all units of
government will have adopted uni
form system for recording highway
expenditures. Each succeeding year
1t will then be possible to gather the
data of expenditures with ease and
with some uniformity tor, compartiye
purposes