The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-10-20
BIG BODYBUILDING
PROGRAM AHEAD

Fifteen to twenty years of building
good roads lie ahead of the United
States. Under the program which the
country has adopted there will be
built, during that time, 100000 miles
of improved highways which will con-
stitute the Federal-aid highway sys-
TEN and an equal or greater mileage
Of state and local roads. When the
great job is done, the transportation
facilities of the country will far ex-
coed 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
centuries, will pale by comparison.
Details of this vast bodybuilding
program are to be placed before the
| Highway Education Board at it's con-
ference in Washington October 26 to
%, inclusive, by State Highway Engi-
neers and officials Of the Bureau of
Public Roads, United States depart
Inent 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 $4,000, 900. 900,
spread over the twenty-year period.
They base this estimate on an average
cost of $4,000 per mile. The aver
age cost, in turn, takes into considera-
ton all classes of improved roadways
from the cheapest to the most expens-
i've types. approximately one-third
of the proposed system, on $4,000
miles of improved highways, already
are either built or building.
The program is new one. Up to
comparatively recent years, road
building in the United States had been
conducted without special regard to
national system. Highways had
been constructed where needed with
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 Ma
ton.
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 will be
borne in mind in the construction OF
the country's new highways. There
will be main lines of highway com.
municatio1 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
population 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 advantageously
with the entire program. The bu'
reau is continuing its research worl
into most efficient methods of road:
building, including the character anc
wearing power of materials, resist.
ing qualities of varying subsoils, etc.
and has amassed considerable store
Of valuable information all of which
will be available for the highway en-.