The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-02-16

Inc 1871 SLdCe tIulh highway 1uuo
of $12,556, 821.79 represented $685..
113. go of motor vehicle tax revenue
$2,840,O00 of federal highway aio
and $4,1OO,708.19 Of proceeds from
county reimbursement bonds sales.
The remaining $6,764,416.01 used
under the direction of the state high
way department was part of the fund
of $21 ,O99, 1928 provided last year fol
local roads-other than trunk high
ways. The large sum for county
town road work was made up, accord
ing to the state auditors abstract, OF
$1O,843,682 of county, $6,862,25O OF
township and $1,s0S,794 of small city
and village road and bridge funds
and of $2,O34,2s7 Of state aid. With
more than twice as much money pro-
vided for local road purposes as for
trunk route betterments, Commits
sioner Babcock is moving to insure
maximum benefits from expenditures
on the secondary as well as the pri-
mary highways.
GrapnS D1Vlu6 DOlldIS
Graphs showing from where the
average good roads dollar came and
how it was used are another feature
of the review. One graph shows
that the average roads dollar is made
up of 60 cents of road and bridge tax
funds, used on local roads, and II
cents of motor vehicle taxes, 8 cents
of federal aid and IL cents Of coun-
ty reimbursement bond money-the
three trunk fund sources of revenue.
Another pictures how So cents OF
Thine average trunk dollar went Tor
new construction, 80 cents for main
tenance about 6 ga cents for equip
ment and less than / Ia cents for
general administration expense.
Truk system construction figures,
compiled by o. L. Kipp, chief con-
struction engineer, total $1O,342,-
5942S of expenditure and many &C
complishment items run into the mil
lions. Construction outfits during the
year moved 1891, 1856 cubic yards of
dirt and gravel. Dumped in a huge
container covering an average city
block 800 feet square with perpen-
dicular walls, the yardage would tow
er nearly 2,700 feet or more than
half mile high, Mr.. Kipp added,
by way of giving an idea of the ire
mendous volume handled. Paving
built ON trunk routes in 1921 would
cover 80 city blocks, each 300 feet
square, or surface sc foot city
street more than 100 blocks in length.
Main Work Permanent
Of the average dollar used for new
construction on trunk routes, Mr..
,Kipp's report discloses, 40 cents went
into permanent grades to make last
ing foundations for highway surfac-
ing that future traffic may demand,
II cents into gravel surfacing and
&c IL cents into paving and the re-
manning Is 1-2 cents for many mis-
cellaneous items. The paving item
carries an explanation that about III
per cent of the trunk highway con-
struction fund was used for paving
and that the 1921 paving mileage was
abnormally high due to the paving
added by counties with reimburse
ment bond money.
Average mile costs Of grading and
gravelling run higher on state than
on county work, and this is due, Mr..
Kipp said, to the fact that trunk
routes carry four times as much traf-
fic as the county roads and must be
of heavier construction. That the
state department secured the lowest
figures on 1921 work is shown, how
ever, by paving contracts averaging
81 200 mile below the prices paid by
counties.
Another tabulation shows trunk
highway grading averaging $5,391.27
a mile; gravel surfacing at $3.50
Sc a mile, and paving at $31, s68.l3 a
mile, the last item including fine
grading, culverts and all other cost
figures.
Bridge Work Advanced
]. T. Ellison, bridge engineer in
highway department announced that
comparatively less bridge work was
done in 1921 than in other recent
years, but IS new bridge projects at
an average of $11,989 each made an
important addition to the program.
The engineer said that under the old
highway laws many counties put
eood percentage of money into
Ridges with the result that bridge
work gained lead on other classes
Of highway Improvement.
Much other construction work is
listed. To insure public safety on road
curves and fills, 126,150 lineal feet
or about Is miles of guard rail was
built at cost of 66 cents foot.
To keep the grades drained and dry,
439, 514 lineal feet or nearly 83
miles of drain tile was laid at 55 IL
cents foot average cost. There were
also 6O.773 feet of portable culverts |