The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-10-25
GOOD
HIGHWAYS
Large Problem Faced Is
Durability of Highways

In my travels over the United States
/ have been most favorably impressed
by the great strides In highway i'm
provements made In many states,
writes L. G. Fairbank in an exchange.
One gratifying feature is the deter
mination of national, state and county
authorities to have real highways, not
merely makeshifts. They have proflted
by experience and realize that to meet
the transportation conditions the high
ways must be constructed accordingly.
In the old days Of transportation on
steam roads we had the narrow gauge
lines with small engines and cars.
Heavier loads meant economy In
transportation and naturally heavier
loads meant heavier cars and locomo-
tives. To meet this situation, how
ever, improvements had to be made
In roadbeds and different type Of
steel rails had to be provided. This
situation exists today in our trans
portation over the state and national
highways. We must have a different
program of road construction and that
is just what liz going on virtually
everywhere.
Often it is thought that heavy We
hicles, carrying heavy loads, are re-
sponsible for the deplorable condition
of some highways. We have seen pho
tographic and other proof of the
wrecking of roads We have seen the
calamitous condition of pavements
smashed by pressure Of some kind.
What is the answer?
In the fall we find some roads as
models of durability In the spring
they are wrecks. Meanwhile heavy
trucks had been driven over them.
Could there be a specifically palmer
case of cause and effect? 1t was OBJ
vious that to save the roads the trucks
and the loads must be made lighter.
On some stretches of the road where
the collapse of the pavements is most
discouraging, nothing goes wrong.
There the trucks do not crush the con-
crete or buckle the brick pavements.
The loads are precisely the same that
are hauled over other stretches of the
IOdd. 4IC SAME WHCClS vi NllC SAINT
vehicles roll over sections that stand
up under the test that roll over the
strips that gave way What, then, is
responsible?
Is it the weight Of the loads or is it
the manner in which the road was
constructed? Is it the way the build
ers failed to adapt their work to the
conditions they had to deal with? Is
1t that soil and drainage, materials
and construction methods did not get
proper attention?
When one road along a sandy ridge,
with good, natural drainage, comes
through a hard winter scarcely fine
worse for wear and another road in
the same district and the same climate,
carrying the same traffic, with the
same truck loads, but with spots in
which the subsoil is wet and there is
no natural drainage, is found in state
Of collapse after the frost comes out
Of the ground, what is the logical con-
clusion? Is it lighter loads or closer
attention to drainage and other i'm
portant features entering into the con-
struction of our highways?
Isn't the remedy to be sought in the
more scientific adjustments of the
highways to the natural changes in the
direction of larger vehicle units and
more economical transportation on the
public roads? The question is vital to
the solution of the whole problem of
country highways, their constr uction
and maintenance. 1t is of immense
Importance to all producers and con-
sumers. 1t is a basic transportation
problem for Americas millions of peo-
Pile who want to do the sensible thing
and the right thing by all interested.
The trend is strongly along this line
and that is why highway construction
I'm 1923 is far in advance of such work
done in years gone by.