The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-03-04
SHOULD REGULATE
TRAFFIC ADVANCE
COL. OLSON, HIGHWAY DIRECTOR,
TELLS OF STATES ROAD
PROBLEMS

Size and weight of vehicles used on
state highways are being increased
at a much faster rate than ehe state
and country can afford to build high
ways to carry them, Col D. p. Olson,
of Boise, director of the state bureau
of highways, told engineering stu
dents of the university Friday in an
address to the college of engineering.
"This tendency to over-develop the
vehicle will most certainly have to be
regulated by adequate legislation, he
said, "as the size and weight of tie
vehicle is progressing at much
greater rate than the wealth and eoo
nomic resources of our state and
country will permit in highway con-
structiOn.
Trucks Travel Too Fast
"a few years ago half-ton truck,
rated at five miles per hour, was a
novelty, but today as result of i'm
proved highway alignment, grade and
surface, it is not uncommon to see
five and ten-ton trucks travelling at
comparatively high rates of speed fer
which the road was never designed.
"In the southern end of the state
heavy passenger carrying machines
and motor trucks equipped with pneu-
matte tires, travelling at comparative
ly high rates of speed, tear to pieces
road surfaces which were considered
highly satisfactory under the o!d
steel-tired traffic of 1900. In the
northern and southern sections of the
state heavy trucks equipped with solid
rubber tires pound numberless chuck |
holes into highways that would other
wise serve for a number of years.
Determine Traffic Conditions
"The engineers principal difficulty
at present is to determine the actual +
traffic conditions to which a given
highway will be subject when it is I
improved.
According to the provisions of Sec
tion Six, Senate Bill 1912, the depart
ment has been required to lay out a |
system of main or trunk line roads
forming an adequate and connected /
system of highways, interstate in
character, which shall not exceed
seven per centum of the total highway
mileage of the state.
HIdaho has an approximate area of
81, 1000 square miles with a population
Of 432, 900 people and valuation of
s496, 900 900, of which S23 100000 is in
Indian values from which the state
receives no revenues, leaving a net
valuation of approximately S473, ,000
900. It can very readily be seen that
the problem of constructing the $500
miles of state highway to an ade-
ouate traffic standard within reason
able time has really become an eco
nomic one, although the engineers
must play leading role as technical
advisors to our legislature.
Build Surface Roads
"It is the opinion of the department
engineers that surfaced roads should
be built on the state highway system
to the exclusion of the earth type,
and it has been proven in each case
that these findings are
sound economics and good engineer
ing. 1t is also the opinion of the de-
partment that owing to the limited !
valuation and resources of the state
it is not possible to build any consid-
cradle mileage of the so-called hard
surface type, but that our efforts and
should be confined almost en-
tirely to the construction of the gravel
or crushed rock types for many years
or at least until the density of traffic
and tonnage is such that those types
cannot be economically maintained.
"a point which has been overlooked
W d ldISc tAlClll III tllS pool anu SiC7
gated to the background is proper
highway location and grade design.
The highway officials have been too
prone to follow the path of least re
sistance or allowed local politics and
sentiment to creep into their decis-d
ions. However, the new conditions !
in traffic will have to be fairly met.
The intensity and volume of the traf-
tic have become such that in the con-
struction of state primary and secon
larry systems the old order must go y
Ind an end must come to quibbling
3ver the saving of an old bridge or
old existing roadbeds in or
Ter to save the expenditure of few
lollars in the purchasing of right of {
way at the expense of thousands of i
he travelling public and in first cost r
,f construction. The elimination of Q