The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-04-02
THE HIGHWAY CONNECTIONS

Says the Samson, Alabama, Ledger: The
Samson-Elba road is to be improved, in spite
of the highway commissions determination
to make the Geneva Elba connection by good
road via Enterprise" That is the proper
spirit. The highway commission must make
its choice of routes in each county, for its
appropriation possible for each county is
limited. But that is no reason why any
community not receiving any coveted high
way should despair. Indeed, that is all the
more reason why such community should re-
solve at once to construct its own unit in
order to tie in with the state highway in the
most feasible manner. The state can build
only SO much mileage in any county; but the
efforts upon the other local roads of i'm
portance and thus give to each local COM
munity its deserved highway facilities. It
behooves the state to build by the most direct
make them 60 as far and give as good quality
roads as possible, and for the counties then
to supplement these state roads by county
roads. The construction of state roads prop
roads.
In a recent issue the Abbeville Herald ably
discusses the question of highways, but among
other things says: "The Age-Herald has al
ways advocated n very high type of road
construction, leaning strongly to state trunk
roads to the exclusion of county roads," 1t
is true that The Age-Herald has advocated
a high type Of road construction and has
urged that the trunk highways, bearing the
greater portion of the travel, should be
built of the best materials. That The Age
Herald desires such roads ito the exclusion
of county roads," is, however, not at all re-
Elective of this newspapers position. The
law requires that at least a minimum of a
quarter Of a million dollars shall be spent
in each county, and the law intends that the
county-seats shall be connected by network
of state highways. The Age-Herald has con-
sistently favored the connection of county
seats by the most direct, feasible and eco
nomical routes, The Age-Herald has taken
the position that the trunk lines would fur
nish the arteries to which the county laterals
would most readily and economically be
united.
In opposing unnecessary highway detours,
The Age Herald has believed that it has been
fighting for the best interests of all con-
cerned, even of the counties in which such de-
tours have been contemplated. In Greene
Gainesville detour adds seven and three
quarter miles to the mileage and $161 500
to the cost of construction, to say nothing of
the added burden of mileage placed upon all
has been decisiveIy and emphatically rejected
by the federal highway department as being
utterly wrong and out of the question from
either an engineering or an economic stand
point If sum of $161 500 more than en-
cheering Judgment approves is spent in one
county, that is more than half the minimum
quota for any county, and unnecessarily
subtracts just that respectable sum from the
funds that will be left to spend in some
other county. If any county is entitled to
such extra expenditure, why should 1t not be
spent in making more efficient road, in
stead of applied to an extra and unnecessary
mileage the maintenance Of which will be
forever a burden upon the highway fund,
and a tax upon all who traverse the detour?
Detours and lateral connections of local
value are an obligation upon the county and
not upon the state.
The federal governments position on the
Gainesville detour is thus given in the words
of Engineer Mcdonald, chief of the bureau
of roads: ut was simply impossible for the
federal bureau to agree on a detour embrac-
ing TX miles on a direct route which will
connect Birmingham, Meridian and New Or
leans, and become one of the most important
highways of that section of the country"
This opinion should be most enljghtening to
the neonle Of Alabama