Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-10-12
BIG HIGHWAY
PROGRAM AHEAD

Fifteen to twenty years of build
ing good roads lie ahead of the Unit
ed States. Under the program which
the country has adopted there will be
built during that time, 10000 mrles
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 Transports
ton facilities of the country will far
exceed those of any other nation, past
or present, in the world. The high
ways of the ancient Romans, whose
fame has come down through the cen
turtles will pale by comparison.
Details of this vast road-building
program are to be placed before the
Highway Education Board at it's con
ference in Washington, October 26 to
%, inclusive, by State Highway Engin
GERS and officials of the Bureau of
Public Roads, United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, to whom has
been entrusted the work of planning
and supervising the construction OF
Federal-aid highways. The plan will
be presented to enable the Board to
proceed authoritatively with its work
of devising aids for schools and col
leges to which road builders of the
country are turning for competent
highway engineers.
Officials of the bureau place the ag-
gregate cost of the Federal-aid pro-
gram alone at. about $3,0000O0, 900.
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 10000 miles
of improved highways, already are
either built or building.
The program is new one. Up to
comparatively recent years, read
building in the United States had been
conducted without special regard to
national system. Highways had
been constructed where needed wiz
out 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-build-
ing program, officials of the bureau
state, will contemplate the construc-
ton 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 important local re-
quirements. With marked modifca-
tions, the system adopted in building
the railways of the country viii be
borne in mind in the construction of
the country's new highways. There
will be main lines of highway commu-
nication between centers and thou
sands of miles of feeder roads, reach
ing back into the more sparsely set
tied regions and into the rich agricul-
tural sections, to tap areas whose pop
ulation 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
bodybuilding, including the character
and wearing power of materials, re
sisting qualities of varying sub-soils,
etc, and has amassed considerable
store of valuable information all of
which will be available for the high
way engineer of tomorrow, whom the
Board is seeking to have educated in
practical and modern methods.