The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Director.
washington, d. g.
ROAD BUILDING a BIG INDUSTRY


Washington, d. c., Feb. 15.-Road
building in the United States is one of
the nations largest industries, a mil
lion men being employed last year
turnout the construction season at
building and repairing the country's
/ highways. The roads completed of
all classes totalIed nearly $4,000 miles
almost enough to girdle the earth at
the equator. 1t was the banner year
in T I'D building in the United States.
I'VE arr accustomed to thinking of
manufacturing of steel, iron, and the
making of automobiles as tremendous
productive enterprises" says Thomas
H. Mcdonald, director of the federal
bureau of public roads, but these
industries, great as they are, are stli
not as large as the business Of nigh
| way building. Il
This years program OF the bureau
of public roads calls for construction
i of at least 5000 miles of federal aid
highways during the 1922 road build
ing season. Programs of 16 states
so far submitted to the bureau call for
as much or more new or improved
highways.
According to the government fig
ures, there are 100000 miles of i'm
proved highways or roadways in the
United States, and about 2,500,QO0
miles of mere roadways,
The construction of national sys-
tenn OF highways, which is now in full
J swing, was provided for by an act of
| congress of 1915, and an amendatory
act of 1921. Both acts call for a ma
tional system of connected roads, each
road a link in the national chain,
bearing it's due proportion of inter-
state traffic, serving with we'll placed
To RI iGt,
the traffic of the rural section.
Machine-made Roads Now.
The back breaking drudgery with
the pick and shovel, and crude man
| propelled or horse drawn contriYan0es
which made this kind of construction
work difficult, are things Of the past.
! Power propelled road making ma
chinery has been developed. The bu-
reau takes men, trains them and pays
them while they are engaged in be-
coming skilled in the handling and
I struction machinery and equipment.
! One of the principal machines
evolved is called the mechanical fin
Usher. The finisher does away with
all of the~eld slow and laborious pro-
4 cesses. 1t drags, constructs, lamps
and dresses the roadway The
| preparation of subgrades is done with
a machine called a homer or RACER.
This is equipped with projecting
blades which pillow up and collect the
dirt or gravel. Another machine is
known as a cering road crater,
leduipped with scoops. This machine
will tear up the hardest surfaces, and
separate the stone from the dirt by a
/ screening process. Specially designed
mixers and rollers are also used.
/ Federal aid highways completed
and under construction at the close of
ill q n
tons of gravel and stone. This means
a million carloads, and It Is equal to
the total annual production of all
! commercial sand and gravel plants in
20 states in the eastern half of cur
tcountry. Federal aid roads which
were under construction or completed
December 81 last, called for 100000 90
barrels of cement, or about one-si1th
of the largest annual production on
record.
Federal Aid for States.
The national highway act was
passed by congress in 1916, 1t re-
quired the creation of a highway de-
partment in all states as a condition
Of the allotment of federal aid. Seven
teen states created highway depart
ments as the result of that act, and
many others were strengthened and
given larger funds.
The 1922 program of the bureau of
public roads. calls for construction
work in all OF the As states. Under
the system, where the state agrees on
a project and to the type of high
way to be built, the federal govern
nent spends dollar for dollar with
the state. Some of the states. such
as New York, Massa ehusetts, Penn
! sylvania and Illinois, while taking
federal aid on some projects, indie
pendently construct large stretches OF
highway.
This rapidly growing industry not
only will furnish. stable employment
for hundreds of thousands Of men
ca h year, but in addition is creating
a demand for young men of technical
} training.
1--WE need about 1000 Trained
young engineers a year in the state
highways departments and in this bu-
reau," says H S. Fairbank, senior
highway engineer of the bureau
There will be positions open each
year for fully 1000 properly trained
young men. and in order TO give them
the proper additional specialized train
ing and to improve it's character in
the technical schools and colleges
, there was formed in 1920 a committee
j to develop courses to fit engineers
for road work. 1t is gathering and
giving to the technical schools and
colleges the information that is ae-
quired by the practical road building
agencies"
Results Shown by Figures.
To be exact, 1880 miles of federal
aid roads were completed during 1894
involving federal money TO the amount
of $94,057,089, and q total expendi-
ture of $2S1,963,6S2. These figures
represent $500 miles of road in pro-
jects wholly completed and 3,32E
miles, the equivalent of work done or
! Iafea n
Seventy-five hundred miles were com
pleted after the first OF July. These
are the statistics of federal aid only
the bureau says, and doubled tlles
will approximate the whole amount
of new work done in the United State:
during the year.
According to the bureau, there was
a grand total of 100000, coo spent or
highway construction and repair il
the United States in 1921 by the fed
eral government and the states. Al
estimate of the derivation of this sun
I shows that ant of fHa tot