Evening star., 1922-04-13
DISTRICT WATCHES
ILLINOIS ROAD TEST
Reports to Be Received for
Guidance Here in Local
Highway Work.

| The state OF illinois Is conducting
an experiment on street surfacing
materials costing about a quarter
| million dollars. and the District of
Columbia, through the courtesy of
Illinois and the activity of the local
engineering department. is to get a
great deal Of the benefit of 1t, it was
learned today. IL plans work out cor
rectly.
Maj. F.. s. Resson, assistant to En-
gineer Commissioner Keller, just got
back from a trip to Springfield, H.,
~here the road tests are being con-
Quoted. He learned a lot that will
help him in determining just waat
sort OF materials and the quantity of
| ingredients to put into District streets
os the future.
Will Get Weekly Report.
He was courteously received and
tns state officials have been kind
enough to assure the representative
CT streets Of the District a weekly
report OF progress. which will aid
| the District, free of charge, almost as
| greatly As Illinois. That state, by the
way. - spending IS much on this
sress for the entire upkeep of its
suburban highways for a year
Ihe test road is two and a half
miles long. just outside Of Springfield.
| 1t 10 composed Of three major ma
! tertals for the surface-concrete, as
phait and brick. But the materials
are mixed up in sixty-three different
oomhina tions with other mater;als.
each strip being 200 feet long. The
dinerence is principally seen in the
oase materials For instance. one
base material may be four inches in
thickness. with asphalt covering,
| whereas another may be six inches
thick with the same covering. Or there
may be concrete base for brick
| surface or the same base for an as
phalt surface.
The tests to date have been only
| climatic in nature. The road has been
constructed for approximately a year
and a. half, and it is dotted every
twenty feet with plugs to the ground
beneath, to see how the street ma
ture. how the street lies on the
ground and to account for any warp
ing or buckiing Of the streets The
effect OF the weather for that period
on the streets. being recently deter
mined satisfactorily. trafice tests are
| now going forward. s.
Daily Truck Runs.
A thousand truck runs are made on
the distance over painted lines each
day. SO that the maximum test is pos
sb1e First the trucks are handled
without body. Next the body will
be placed on them. Next a load wall
be placed in them.
The outcome. for which Illinois is
spending its money and the District is
being indirectly benefited, is being
watched with great interest. it was
stated today. by road building engI-
neers throughout the country.
At present. in Washington. the big
question is how heavy load should
be allowed on District streets. Mary
lands traffic load limit on her roads
is 10000 pounds. The District streets
often bear $4,000 and $4,000 pound
truckloads. to the great detriment of
the surface. But the equity Of the
proposition confronting local road en-
gineering experts is whether the re-
suits for the persons benefited by
these heavy loads are greater than
the harm done to the streets. In the
District building they're still seek
| ing q solution to this problem.
It il an old belief that a child born
| on Easter morning is likely to know