The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1922-11-10
ROAD FOR
u. S. is

Fifteen to 20 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 constitute the
federal aid highway system and an
equal or greater mileage of state and
local roads. When the great job is
finished, the transportation facilities
of the country will far exceed those of
any other nation, past or present, in
the world. The highways of the an
cient Romans, whose fame has come
down through the centuries, will pale
by comparison.
Details of this vast road building
program were placed before the High
way Education board at it's conference
in Washington by state highway en-
gineers 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 was present.
ed to enable the board to proceed au-
thoratively with it's work of devising
aids for schools and colleges to which
road builders of the country are turn
ing for competent highway engineers.
Officials of the bureau place the ag-
gregate cost of the federal aid pro-
gram alone at about $4,000, 600, 900,
spread over the 2O-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 $4,000 miles
of improved highways, already are
either built or building.
The program is a new one. Up to
comparatively recent years, ~roadbuild-
ing in the United States had been con-
Quoted without special regard to a ma
tional system. Highways had been
constructed where needed without con-
sidering whether they would link up
in the most effective name with the
whole network of roads to be spread
over the nation. Engineers had sought
more to meet immediate and local de-
mands 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 modifica-
lions, 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
munication between centers and thou
sands of miles of feeder roads, reach
ing back into the more sparsely set
tied sections and into the rich agri-
cultural regions 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 bureau
is continuing its research work into
most efficient methods of road build
ing, including the character and wear
ing power Of materials, resisting quail
tiles of varying sub-soils, ETC., and has
amassed a comfortable store of valu-
able information all of which will be
available for the highway engineer of
tomorrow, whom the board is seeking
to have educated in practical and
modern methods.