The Monmouth inquirer., 1923-07-19
CONSTRUCTION OF
MORE HIGHWAYS
Trenton Princeton Section Most
important of One Million
Dollar Total.
CAPE MAY JOB AUTHORIZED
Engineer Reports Improvement Of APP
proaches to institutions Would Cost
$1s4,ooo-Long Valley Road Prob
lem-Approve Bridge Payment.

more than 81, 900 900 worth of work on
the state highway system was author
lied by the State Highway Commits
sion. Major William G. Sloan. state
highway engineer, reported that al.
ready 81, 900, 900 worth of work actu-
ally had been contracted for or IS
being advertised.
The most important work authoriz-
ed was the section of the Lincoln
Highway between this city and Prince
ton, a distance of approximately eleven
miles, which will be improved at an
estimated cost Of more than $500, 900.
Where the road passes through Law
r%enceville for a distance of $500 feet
the tracks of the Trenton & Mercer
County Traction Corp, now skirting
the westerly side of the Lawrenceville
School campus, will be moved to the
center of the road. The expense Of
relocating the tracks will be borne by
the Highway Commission, which will
advance approximately $4,000 to the
trolley company for the purchase Of
new rails and ties. This will be re-
paid within two years. The constrnc-
ton will be a bituminous surface on a
concrete base.
Another section Of highway added
to the 1928 construction program was
that between Swainton and Cedar
Springs station in Cape May county.
This Is a link in the route between
Cape May City and Egg Harbor City.
The present gravel highway will be
replaced with concrete.
Major Sloan submitted a report
placing at $194, 900 the estimated cost
of improving approaches to various
state institutions under the law au-
thorizing that work be done by the
Highway Commission. In response to
a request from the Mercer freehold
ers the commission decided to bear
half the expense of extending the i'm
provement of Sullivan way to the
State Hospital in this city and to the
new site for the State School for the
Deaf, in the vicinity of Trenton. 1t
also authorized an expenditure of $13,-
900 for improving the approach to the
State Agricultural College, $4,000 for
the approach to the Vineland Home
for Feeble Minded, and $4,000 for the
approach to the Boys Home at James
burg.
The question of improving the road
in Morris county from the Hunterdon
County line to Long Valley, a state
aid project, was again given ~considera-
ton. The Morris freeholders want
an eighteen-foot highway, ~contending
that tho county is unable to finance a
wider pavement. Major Sloan recon-
mended a twenty-foot width. The state
has agreed to contribute $4,000 to-
ward the project. 1t was decided that
If the county will undertake a twenty
foot improvement, the state will add
1000 TO it's previous offer, this being
half the estimated cost Of the addi-
tional two feet in width.
Approval was given to a contract
for a sheet asphalt surface on Eve
sham road, between the White Horse
pike and the MISUNDERSTANDING road,
Camden county. The contract price
is $1.33 a yard for three inches Of
asphalt, amounting in the aggregate
to SOS, 693.
After a hearing accorded Ralph San
Giovanni of Newark, low bidder for
the construction of the section CT
Route 5, between Chatham and Brant-
wood, the contract was awarded to
him. 1t had been held up temporarily
pending an investigation to determine
whether San Giovanni was in a posi-
ton satisfactorily to undertake all the
state work upon which he was the low
bidder.
Approve Payment for Bridge
Upon recommendation of Major
Sloan the commission approved pay
ment of a balance of $4,000 to the
engineering firm of Stone. Delehanty
4 Ferris of Jersey City for construc-
tion of the temporary bridge over the
z1ackensack. This claim has been held
in allegiance since the old commission
went out of office, having been laid
over by the State House Commission
on the ground that there was no of1-
cials body in existence to authorize its
UdJIlCAl. "A QuCoLAOA was AdADCQ 90
to whether recent difficulty in operat--
ing the draw span was due to any
fault of the engineer. Major Sloan
expressed the belief that it was not.
It was his opinion that there might
have been a settling of the span in
the river bed. and he added that it is
almost impossible to construct such a
superstructure on piles without such
settling. In addition, the excessive
heat he said had probably been re-
sponsible for uneven expansion of the
bridge, a difficulty which has been
experienced with many structures dur
ing the past two weeks.
A communication was received from
the Far Hills Fair Association, com
planning of the slow progress being
made on Route 16. between Far Hills
and B~edminster. The commission ex-
tended the time for completing this
section to July 20, the decision being