The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-02-10

bridge work was done in 1921 thar
in other recent years, but 55 new
bridge projects at an average of
$11,989 each made an important
addition to the program. The en-
gineer said that under the old high
way laws many counties out a good
percentage of more into bridges
with the result that bridge work
gained a lead on other classes of
highway improvement.
Much other construction work is
listed. To insure public safety on
road curves and fills, 126,150 line
al feet or about rs miles of guard
rail was built at a cost of IS cents
a foot. To keep the grades drained
and dry, 439,514 lineal feet or
nearly SO miles of drain tile was
laid at 55h cents a foot average
cost. There e also 60,773 feet
of portable culverts, mainly at farm
entrances, costing $1.76 a foot,
and 455 monolithic ~cuIverts at an
average of $705.z3 each. Right-of-
way clearing and grubbing, hand.
ditching, special blowing, cutters
oiAo SdI~Su-OdslLS, Retailing Walls
and minor items are part of the
new improvements listed.
Maintenance Spreads Benefits.
The smoothing and other upkeep
of $3.50 miles of trunk highways
last season took $2,224,227 of the
S. 5000, 900 fund set aside for main
tenance, according to w. F. Rosen-
valid, chief maintenance engineer.
Eighty-two cents of each main
tenance dollar was paid for labor,
the summary shows. Men and
teams got 43 cents. of the dollar
or 1864 200, against a 20 cents or
1924 900 paid men and trucks. In
addition, laborers took S133,500-6
cents of each average dollar. Other
items making up the dollar were
about z cents for gravel, culverts
and other materials, about 10 cents
for equipment operation and less
than III cent for unclassifed items.
Maintenance and special upkeep
work on the trunk routes averaged
S324.46 a mile for the season. That
includes wages of patrolmen-one
for each 6-mile section-the re-
shaping and re-surfacing operations
which In some cases ran close to
new construction figures, and other
like outlags. Another maintenance
dollar distribution shows A u cents
to patrolmen, % cents for repairs
and 21 cents for betterments, a
little over IL cents for special
work and 5 cents for overhead ex-
penses and superintendent of all
kinds from executives to foremen.
Shown in another way, smoothing
and mending during the season cost
Sl44.7O a mile; repairs $90.17 and
betterments $3.50; special work
S5.08 and overhead s16.21 cents a
mile.
Miscellaneous Work Listed.
Maintenance forces also marked
the trunk routes with the official
numbers on yellow stars, made the
traffic census, kept up the detours
and did much other special work.
Patroling of $685. miles of trunk
routes included the cutting of brush
along 1892 miles, cleaning of .969
miles of side-ditches and raking
diversified stones from 1861 miles
of highway. In re-shaping 1.137
miles of trunk routes, maintenance
crews moved 56,846 cubic yards. of
earth, excavated 500 yards of solid
rock, cut So miles of drainage
bitches and filled 80 bridge ap-
proaches and 13 sink-holes. Like
wise, re-surfacing of 1856 miles in
volved the placing of 632,367 cubic
yards of gravei, the soarifying of
285 miles of old ~surfacing and the
building of 81 miles of shoulders
along paving.
Maintenance forces built Is wood
en- bridges and repaired 191 others
and placed 1,067 and repaired 1875
c%ulverts. They built 24,33O lineal
feet of guard rails and painted and
repaired $3.50 feet more, placed
1920 feet of snow fences: laid
1870 lineal feet of drain tile and
2,911 cubic yards of. rip-rap. Last
but not least, the Maintenance en-
gineer added, the forces built SO
miles OF detours and maintained
547R miles of detour routes.
Equipment and Inspection.
The highway equipment depart
ment with shops at the state fair
grounds and many fleets and small
er outfits in the field was operated
in 1921 at al overall expense of
S~382,515.53, according to the re-
port of R. M. Cooley, superintend-
ent of equipment. A. division of
the average dollar spent for equip
ment shows that about 40 cents
was used for new parts, 80 cents
for new machines, and the remain
ing 30 cents for many small items.
An appraised of the surplus war
equipment held here together with
the accumulated earnings at going
prices will show a big gain for the
state when it is completed, Super
intendent Cooley predicted, and pre-
1iminary figures show 500, 600 of
net earnings.
F. c. Lang, engineer of tests, tis
in charge of field inspections on.
construction and also of the labor
atories at the University of Mime
sofa where many material and other
tests were made. Scientific tests
of cement, asphalt and other
materials used by the state in high
way building are made by the score
at the laboratories and the costs of
the service like those of field in
spection are. measured by mills,
rather than cents, in the dollar
graphs. This is the main insurance
department in connection with the
road work-the safeguard against
inferior materials, the engineers
said and therefore one of the first