Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-22
A COMPARISON IN ROAD BUILDING

Strenuous efforts will be made by certain interests to
have the people vote in favor of the $4,000, 900 bond issue
for the state highways. The question is to be passed upon
at the general election this fall. The plea is being made
that with this $40, 000, 900 at once available the state high
way system can be completed within the next five years.
But there is something more than the completion of
the state highway system to be considered in this matter. In
the first place, there is the rapacious claws Of the patent
pavement trust ready to grab a large part of the $4,000
900. This trust has such a strangle hold on the state of
New Jersey that anything in the way Of highway improve
ment means fat pickings for this combination.
In the second place, it has been shown that without the
bond issue it will be possible to complete the state highway
system within seven years. This can be accomplished with
the money received from the state road tax, the income from
the motor vehicle department and the appropriations from
the federal government. 1t would seem extravagant, then,
to pile $40, 900, 900 on the state debt for the sake of saving
two or three years on the highways.
The legislature deliberately played into the hands of
the patent pavement crowd last year when it passed this
$40, 900, 900 bond issue proposition, but deliberately turned
down Senator Parry's bill providing for open specifications
and competition in awarding paving contracts, although
the latter was promised in the Republican party platform.
We all want good roads, but we are not willing to be made
suckers for the patent pavement trust.
There is much significance in the comparison between
the two new sections of the Lincoln Highway now being
built, one in New Jersey. between Metuchen and Highland
Park by the New Jersey State Highway Commission, and the
other in Lake county, Indiana, by the Lincoln Highway AS
sociation to be known as the "ideal section of the Lincoln
Highway"
The "ideal section which is expected to stand for
years as a model for the gradual evolution of the entire
route across the continent as traffic increases, is to cost
800, 900 a mile, which is exactly what the stretch of high
way between Metuchen and Highland Park will cost. The
s.ideal section however, will be forty feet wide, while the
section between Metuchen and Highland Park will be only
~thirty-two feet wide.
But here is the significant fact. The model road in
Indiana is to be constructed of ten inches of concrete with
out any patented top dressing, whereas the road between
Metuchen and Highland Park is to have a patented dressing
on a concrete foundation.
This comparison shows that it costs as much to build
a road thirty two feet wide with a patented top dressing
as il does to build a ten inch all-concrete road forty feet wide
Because the State Highway Commission and the varl-
Gus Boards of Freeholders in New Jersey persist in playing
into the hands of the patent pavement trust, wasting good
money on royalties that might otherwise be spent on MAX
ing the highways wider and safer, the people are not going
to turn $4,000, 600 over to the state commission to be
suuandered in such a manner. Wise taxpayers, no matter
how much they may desire improved roads, will vote mo"
on the bond issue.