The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-13
COUNTY HAS LONG BEEN ADVOCATE OF BETTER ROADS
High Types Of Construc. tion Used To Insure
 Permanent Benefit

Tuscaloosa has long realized
 that everything you eat, wear,
 use. buy or play with has to be
 hauled over a road at some stage
 of production. Bad roads throttle
 distribution. Good roads facilitate
 distribution and enhance the social
 life of this county. A progressive
 community must have good roads.
 A careful study has demonstrated
 the fact that the only road that
 will stand the wear of modern traf.
 fife is concrete"
 Thus does the Chamber of Commerce of Tuscaloosa pronounce the commit nity's dictum on the subject of high ways. Tuscaloosas policy is to build roads that pay for themselves, the civic organization further sets forth, and roads will not pay for themselves unless they last; they will be burden in- stead of an asset if they are con- stantly in need of repair.
 With this conviction expressed, the civic wrokers of Tuscaloosa went be- fore the voters of the county and asked them to approve a $600,0O0 bond issue to build four concrete roads in Tusca- loosa county, namely, the Jefferson, Hale, Green and Pickens county roads, Two goods road mass meetings were conducted in the city, at which speak CTS impressed on the voters the neces- sity for good, permanent roads. Thir- teen good roads meetings were held at various points in te county, and ban quet was given at which the guests were representatives of. every beat in the county.
 The good roads bond issue carried by two-thirds majority. Work of paving was begun on the Castle HN and Northport projects. the Birmingham road was resurfaced. the Hargrove road graded and resurfaced, as we'll as the Moore's bridge road, a new highway was opened from the Byler road to the Waldrop road, and steel bridges were constructed on Hurricane creek, North river and Sipsey river. The Chamber of Commerce erected welcome signs on all roads, mad 375 tourists who applied for road information said nothing was more welcome to them than to find themselves in a progressive county.
 Not New In Tuscaloosa
 The permanent road idea is not new one III uSCdlOOSd, SlllGC luC POAlSJ was adopted ten years ago, when fifteen or sixteen miles of model highways were built on four of the leading routes radiating from the city. These were the Byler road, leading up into the northwestern part of the county; the Crabb, into the northern; the Hunts vile, into the northeastern and the Greensboro, into the southeastern. Use Of Concrete
 The city of Tuscaloosa added five miles of street paving and laid two miles of sidewalk during the past year. Concrete was adopted as the material for this work, as on the county roads.
 W. H. Nicol, city engineer of Tus- caloosa, discussing the subject in an article for The Dixie Manufacturer, said:
 Largely as result of the good wearing qualities shown by concrete pavement built in this city ten years ago, the city officials of Tuscaloosa adopted Portland cement as the mate rial to be used when the city's present program of street improvement was started. Today there are completed or under completion in Tuscaloosa about 100000 square yards of concrete pay
 
 ing.
 'Though it was not built, according to present day standards of construc- tion, the concrete pavement laid on University avenue in 1913, through the grounds of the State University, is still in excellent condition. The pave ment is half mile in length and con sists of two 17-foot roadways, one on each side of a 10-foot park area en- closing the street car tracks. This pave ment was laid by Tuscaloosa county, convict labor being used. Two small, one-sack mixers mixed the concrete, which was proportioned one part cement and one and half parts sand and three parts gravel. The fine and coarse aggregates consisted of bank run sand and gravel which was hauled from neighboring pit. The materials were
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