Evening star., 1925-09-20
BY WILL z. KENNEDY.


This is tic concluding article on the
condition of Washington streets.
Previous articles in this series
printed during the past week show
that:
W A very large percentage of our
streets are worn out, having been in
natural life, and carrying traffic far
heavier and in larger volume than
they were built to bear.
(2) At a certain period each year
they will deteriorate even more rap
idly, at time when no repairs can
be made.
(3) There IS controversy whether
the best type of surfacing material
is being used.
(4) The policy in regard to snow
and ice removal after a severe storm
causes extensive damage to the
streets, greatly Shortens their life, is
inefficient and expensive, causes in.
calculable loss 10 business men, and
damages trucks, automobiles and
other vehicles.
(5) The gasoline tax. even supple
mented by payment of assessments
against property owners under the
Boriand amendment. is insufficient to
keep up the yearly quota of resur-
faclnS--no 10 mention catching up
on the accumulated deficiency Of more
than 10000 square yards of resur-
facing that should have been done
years ago.
Should Have Best Streets,
So we now come to the very peril
nent Question-"What should be
done?"
The Nations Capital should have
the best streets of any city or State
In the country. Visitors from all
parts of the country, and from all
over the world, who come here to ad.
mire what we boastfully claim is "the
best city in the world" should not
have their enjoyment knocked out of
them by being bumped and jolted
around on streets that were worn out
before the war, and which have been
"outlawed" for 10 to 20 years.
Our streets in the City of Washing
ton should always be in first-class
condition, with repairs made i'm
mediately when the break comes, in
stead Of being allowed to deteriorate.
going for months and years with
hoies ana ruts growing worse and
worse all the time.
We are now so far behindhand on
Keeping our streets in shape that 1t
is incredible to believe that Congress
(which has exclusive control over ex.
pendltureS-for street work, or anv
other municipal Improvement will at
once authorize complete job of re.
habilitation.
Program That Is Required.
To set up a practical program. d.
rected toward that objective, the ger
eraI accomplishments to be sought
are:
First-The construction of modern
roadway pavements adequate to sus-
tain the legal axle loads on all i'm
proved roadways or others not suffi-
GENTLY well paved to carry modern
heavy traffic.
Second-The resurfacing of very
notable area of old asphalt pave
ment, whose extreme age has re-
suited in a deterioration that can only
be corrected by a new blanket of
asphalt.
Th.rd-Undertaking a program of
roadway widening of business and
thoroughfare streets, where the tre-
mendously increase volume of vehic-
uiar traffic has far exceeded the ca
pacity of the present roadway width.
These are the three biggest, general
lines of improvement but there are
also important policy decisions that
should be made as soon as possible
on matters where there is now very
serious disagreement
=. Must Fight Snow.
(A) Our streets must be kept
open for truck, automobile and ye-
hicular traffic Just as we'll as they are
kept open for street car service. Ade-
quate plow equipment attached to
Tnyrarfft1 ,cf hn ia
clear traffic lanes. The heavy snow
must be fought as 1t falls and not al.
lowed to pile up, blockading our
streets. If the District officials are In
competent to supervise such work, let
private contractors do it. The streets
can be kept open for traffic, even
though there must be an interruption
of curbstone parking, without any
great increase in cost to the tax
payers.
B) Decision should be made wheth-
er it is better economy to use lake
asphalt exclusively for surfacing and
resurfacing our streets. rather than
the oil asphalts that are being more
generally used, merely because they
are a little cheaper, and therefore
somewhat larger area can be tenn
porarily covered each year.
FirSt-In regard to the necessary
construction of modern roadways. In
earlier articles in this series it was
shown that traffic during the last
to 10 years has undergone remark
able change. 1t has grown not only
tremendously in volume but also in
unit weight. Roads that were built
10 or even 5 years ago were not OF
sufficiently strong foundation or of
proper type to allow the present legal
70 hai
though they do not fail structurally,
without such serious abrasion as to
make maintenance of those surfaces
for proper traffic extravagantly. ex-
pensive.
Maintenance Cost Cut.
For example: When the District
authorities were seeking from Con-
gress appropriations to resurface
Connecticut avenue, Georgia avenue,
Bladensburg road and other heavily
travelled thoroughfares, the engineer
ing force of the District showed that
it was costing Is to 25 cents per
square yard per year to maintain
these roadway surfaces in even rela-
lively unsatisfactory condition. When
they were repaved with modern
pavement this maintenance cost was
at once reduced to about or cents
per square yard per year.
One of the great gateways to the
Capital City, which opens into a
suburban territory that is increasing
rapidly in population, and which must
bear a great deal of heavy traffic. is
Sixteenth street north of Columbia
road. Yet this street is known by the
District authorities and by the COM
mittees of Congress to be structurally
inadequate to carry the type and vol
ume of traffic. This is mainly due to
the influence of the traffic on the road
way surface which makes the cost of
tremendously expensive.
Second-In regard to the necessity
of resurfacing a great deal of worn
out road surfaces In the fifth article