Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-19
BURTON GIVES DATA
ON PAVING COUNTY ROAD
CONTINUED from page ~

i each road is brought out. i under
stand that the Pennsylvania roat
referred to is but eighteen feet wild
and built of eight inch cement.
know that the Highland Park
Metuchen road is t~hirty-two feet IL
width, nearly twice the width of thu
| Pennsylvania road. The contract fol
the New Jersey road under discus
sion required first the removal o.
+, the old road, and considerable ex
| cavation; then the contractor mus
! pick up and clean all of the OLD
stone base on the road, return sam,
to position and properly roll it
then six inches of the best cinder!
must be laid on the stone base ant
! rolled until the six inches is com
| pacted to three inches. On this /.
built a nine-inch concrete founda'
ton for the full width of the road
| and upon this foundation Is placed
two inches of wearing surface. IL
| addition to all of these things, ant
although the road itself is a little
less than five miles in length, ovel
47,500 feet. or over nine miles. o.
sewer pipe, a great deal of which i!
of the largest size, must be installed
in order to properly drain the road
again the plans and specifications
call for concrete header curb the en-
tire length of the road on both sides
and down the middle, meaning near
ly fifteen miles of header curb must
| be constructed. Can anyone say that
it is fair to compare the cos of the
cheap narrow road in Pennsylvania
| with this wide substantial road in
New Jersey? A portion of n OF
the sections of the Highland Park
Metuchen Road is to be built OF
granite block upon a concrete foun-
dation, costing 1897 per square yard
total cost of granite block, $54,346.
| Surely If any kind of a comparison
is to be made, this yardage must De
eliminated as it necessarily increases
| considerably the cost of the entire
road.
II have nc doubt but that a road
could have been built between High
land Park and Metuchen for some
where near the Pennsylvania prices
We could have eliminated the relay
ing of the old stone base and the
cinders; We could have eliminated
| nearly all of the drainage system and
the header curbs and could nav
built the road, but eighteen feet
wide. If we had done this the price
| would have been just what 1t cost to
lay the road in Pennsylvania and II
would have been in my opinion the
most extravagant and wasteful thing
that the Highway Commission could
have done.
ct have been intimately familiar
with the Highland Park-Metuchen
road for twenty-five years. Twenty
five years G it was a wet. sprlngy
road and seldom in fair condition,
even for the use of horse-drawn We
hicles and bicycles. Its very nature
made it defy drainage. and every one
knows that no type of constructor
can stand upon a wet, springy foun-
dation. Although hardly necessary
1 might remark that traffic demands
a very wide and extremely strong
road at this point in the highway
system. There is but n main high
way between New Brunswick n
Elizabeth to carry, according to traf-
6c count, owe ten thousand motor
vehicles per day, many of which are
of the heaviest type of trucks. AT
New Brunswick there are W routes
to Trenton and there Is more than
one route from Elizabeth to Newark.
This justifes the commission in
building a very wide and substantial
road of a repairable nature. / be-
lieye that the contract prices were
reasonable and Ishave yet to hear OF
one contractor who has stated that
he would have built either section
of the road for less than the contract
price.
81 nave no fault to find with the
former commission, but its chair
-, ToLa w Horhart attacks the
present commission for the use OF
warrenite. He and others have tried
to make the people believe that the
former commission laid no patented
and that the present commission
has has specified nothing but pat
ented pavement. Let us have the
facts. The former commission
completed, until it's removal from
Office on July /. 1920. thirty-six
miles of pavement. OF the thirty
SIX miles, five are warrenlte; IN
other words, Ia per cent. The pres
cnt commission has since completed
or has under contract, I'll miles OF
which warrenite was directly spe-
cited for thirteen miles; in other
wol DIS, about 5 per cent. Under lie
reimbursement plan, as the law
provides, counties have specineo
twenty-five miles of warrenite or a
little less than 9 per cent So even
Il the present commission could be
charged with the type selected by
counties, the respective percentages
are identical. In addition, the fcr-
ME, commission spent large sums
OF state aid and motor venlSIe
none on the same patented pave,
ment and by its resolution OF Aprii
8. 1919, added another patent pave.
ment called national pavement
to the state aid list.
1.-THE former commission placed
warrenite in the state s~pec1hcations
shortly after it came into office. In
1913 a Republican legislature ana a
Republican governor passed the re-
endorsement act. II the former
commission had really wanted 10
prevent counties from s~uecifylng
w%arrenite, all it needed to do was
to remove it from the approved list.
In over two years, 1t never dio u.
-Four Republican legislatures have
since come and gone. The law now
claimed to be so nefarlous mas
neither been repealed or amended,
but its operation has been suspend
d.d for one year pending disposi-
ton of the bond issue.
"Herbert says the Highland Park
Metuchen road costs too much
money. The cost per mile, 80 feet
wide. including the expensive graz
tie block, is $685., 100000. Now we do
not need to go to Pennsylvania or
Oklahoma-we will stay in the same
county-Middlesex. The former
commission built the Metuchen-
Menlo Park-Rahway road. which
adjoins the Highland Park-Metuch-
en- road, for a width of eighteen feet;