The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-10-24
FEDERAL AID

AeCLIOH Win Tic "oFkluS Jul VI q SOo0
roads program about which there is so
much confusion as that of federal aid.
There is in some quarters an impress
sion that the federal government ap-
propriates lump sum for aid in road
construction and that all that is neces-
sary to enable the road department TO
secure the benefit of that aid is to put
up an equal amount. No man or body
of men wish more earnestly that this
conception were correct than the state
road department. '-.~
The federal government first made
an appropriation for aid to the states
in road construction by rider to the
postoffice appropriation bill approved
July II, 1916, and this was applicable
only to post roads. AS there are COM
paratively few of such roads in Flor
ida, it was difficult for this state to
receive the benefit of the act. By
amendment approved in 1919, the
scope of the appropriation was en-
larged to cover roads connecting post
roads and the states were required to
formulate and submit maps showing
a fve-year program, the expenditure,
however, to be confined to arterial
roads. This amendment also very ma
terially enlarged the appropriation,
the first appropriation having been ex-
tremely small, Florida being allotted
for the first year about $4,000, By
an amendment approved November g.,
1921, practically all reference to post
roads was cut out and there is now
no necessity for submitting post road
data. The present law contemplates a
state and federal highway system.
The latest amendment did not increase
the amount of federal aid, but it plac-
ed the operation of the act on a more
definite basis, in that it required that
all federal aid should be expended on
a state. and federal highway system
which would represent not in excess Of
seven per cent of the total public road
mileage of any state. This is what is
sometimes referred to as the "Seven
Per Cent System" and is later referred
to. Of the seven per cent of such en-
tire road mileage of the state, not in
excess of three-seventh constitutes
what is known as the primary system,
and four-sevenths, the secondary sys--
tenn. The act provides that not less
than sixty per cent of the amount of
federal aid granted shall be expended
upon the primary system while the re-
mainder may be expended upon the
secondary system. .......-.,. q
The practical working of federal
aid is in charge of the federal bureau
of public roads, a branch of the de-
partment of agriculture. The country
is divided into ten districts, Florida
being within the tenth district, the
central Office of which is located at
Montgomery, Ala, and is in charge Of
A. E. Loder, district engineer. The
representative of the bureau in Flor
ida is H. j. Morrison, senior highway
engineer, with headquarters at Gaines
vile. Mr.. Morrison is the official thru
whom the state road department
works most intimately. There has al
ways been the heartiest cooperation
between the bureau of public roads
and the road department of Florida
and Mr.. Morrison in particular has
labored untiringly to be of every as
| sistance to the department.
No federal aid is extended except
upon projects approved by the bu-
reau of public roads, and subsequent
to the passage of the federal act of
1921, it became necessary for the road
department to designate the roads
constituting it's seven per cent, and
to further designate of those roads the
three-sevenths constituting the pri-
mary system and the four-sevenths
secondary system. 49, b. ...-
Federal aid is in fact actually avail
able only after the completion of a
| PiOJSSC VI GAS SolilplCttolI VI uIteS
thereof, the result being that the
state road department must Away.
advance the funds necessary to the
construction of the project upon which
federal aid is later received. Esti-
mates and vouchers are made ul
monthly by the department during the
progress of the work, which go first
to Mr.. Morrison at Gainesville for ap-
prevail, then to the Montgomery office
for its approval and finally for the ap-
IIoval and payment to the bureau in
Washington. This process takes from
six weeks to three months, during
which time the state must put up the
money or the work would of necessity
stop. Just here it may be we'll to re-
mark that at the present time federal
participation cannot exceed $4,000
FER mile. Under the first act the limit