Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-10-12
Big Road Building
Program Ahead in
the United States

Fifteen to twenty years of building
good roads lie ahead of the United
States. Under the program which the
country has adopted there will be
built. during that time, 100000 miles
OF improved highways which will
constitute the Federal-aid highway
system and an equal or greater mile
age of State and local roads. When
the great job is done, the transporta-
ton facilities of the country will far
exceed those of any other nation,
past or present, in the world. The
highways Of the ancient Romans,
whose fame has come down through
the centuries, will pale by COMPARE
son.
Details of this vast road building
program are to be placed before the
Highway Education Board at its
conference in Washington October
2e to 2s. inclusive. by the State
Highway Engineers and officials of
the Bureau of Public Roads, United
States Department of Agriculture, to
whom has been entrusted the work
OF planning and supervising the con-
struction of Federal-atd highways.
The plan will be presented to enable
the Board to proceed authoritativeIy
with its work of devising aids for
schools and colleges to which road
builders Of the country are turning
for competent highway engineers.
Officials Of the bureau place the
aggregate cost of the Federal-aid
program alone at about 100000,
600. spread over the twenty-year
period They base this estimate on
an average cost of $4,000 per mile.
The average cost In turn, takes into
consideration all classes of improved
roadWays from the cheapest to the
most expensive types. Approximately
one third of the proposed system, or
$4,000 miles of improved highways.
already are either built or building.
The program is a new one. UP to
comparatively recent years, road
building in the United States had
been conducted without special re-
gard to national system. Highways
had been constructed where needed
without considering whether they
would link up in the most effective
manner with the whole network of
roads to be spread over the Nation.
Engineers had sought more to meet
immediate and local demands than
the broader requirements Of the
States and nation.
The present Federal-aid road
building program, officials Of the
bureau state, will contemplate the
construction of only such roads as
/ fit into the national program and
| contribute to the national system.
At the same time the roads will be
so selected as to serve the most i'm
portant local requirements. With
marked notifications, the system adj
| opted in building the railways of the
country will be borne in mind in the
construction of the country's new
highways. There will be main lines
OF highway communication between
centers and thousands of miles of
feeder roads, reaching back into the
more sparsely settled regions and into
the rich agricultural sections, to tap
areas whose population and products
! will flow over the new system.
New roads will be planned and
built-thousands Of miles Of them.
where they will fit in most advan-
tageOusly with the entire program
The bureau is continuing its research
work into most efficient methods Of
road building, including the charac-
ter and wearing power of materials,
resisting qualities Of varying sub
soils, etc. and has amassed a con-
siderable store of valuable Informal
ton all of which will be available for
the highway engineer of tomorrow,
whom the Board Is seeking to have
educated in practical and modern
| methods.