Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-20
Improved Roads
Not Luxuries, Says
u. S. Dept. Agriculture

Although the exact state Of road
improvement in the United States at
the present time is not know, it Is
estimated by the U. S. department
of agriculture that the total mileage
of surfaced roads at the end Of 1924
was between 100000 and 475,000
miles. Indications are that approx
mately 10000 miles of surfaced roads
of various types have been built dur
ing each year since 1921. Exact fig
ures as to how this mileage has been
divided by types or states are not
available. A considerable part of the
work, moreover, has consisted of re-
surfacing. 1t therefore cannot be
assumed that the net mileage of sur
faced roads has been increased dur
ing the last three years by the total
amount of the new continuation. The
last complete survey of the road i'm
provement situation was made in
1921 when the total surfaced mileage
was reckoned at 3S7,760 miles. New
construction and resurfacing since
1921 have proceeded at a rate which
is believed to justify the estimate
that the net gain since then is well
above $4,000 miles.
In announcing these facts, the de-
partment draws attention to certain
wrong ideas that are current about
road improvement. Improved roads
it says, are not luXuries. For the
movement of every vehicle over a
road there is a certain cost, which
is less if the road be improved than
if it be left in state of nature.
Logically, therefore, the only limit
that should be placed on expenditure
for road improvement Is the amount
that can be saved in vehicular oper-
ating costs. This amount of course,
depends upon the number of vehicles
using the road. 1t is pointed onut
that the country loses more, in in
creased cost of operating vehicles
by not improving roads than it costs
to improve them. In other words,
it pays for improved roads whether
it has them or not and it pays less
by having them than by not having
them.
Another common error, says the
department, is that all roads should
be hard surfaced. Hard surfacing
with concrete, brick. ashphalt, stone
or wood blocks is an expensive pro-
cess. When its cost is greater than
the saving accrued from the i'm
visable. 1t is possible to make great
improvements in roads without hard
surfacing them and these improve
ments are quite effective in reducing
the cost of travel.
When vehicles using a road are
comparatively few, an unsurfaced
but graded and drained road can be
made and maintained in satisfactory
condition by dragging at very low
cost. If the traffic is so great that
an unsurfaced road cannot be main
tanned in continuous good condition,
surfacing with stone, sand-clay or
gravel, although more costly than
simple grading, will generally be
compensated by the greater saving
in the cost of operating vehicles
over it. SIMILARLY when the traffic
is greater than a gravel road will
carry. a bituminous, macadam sur
face can be economically applied. 1t
is not necessary tC use one of the
becomes very dense. When that
point is reached, hard-surfacing is
necessary and economical.
All roads should be improved, says
the department, to the maximum de-
sgree that the traffic on them justi-
fies, but no road should be improved
beyond its earning capacity. When
this principle is observed the re-
quired annual expenditure for any
type of road is within the yearly
savings in the cost of opera ting the
vehicles it has to carry. In other
words, the return to the public in
the form of economic transportation
is the sole measure of the worth of
road improvements. To say that all
roads should be hard surfaced, the
department points out. is merely an
other way of urging expenditures in
excess of income.
Still another common mistake IS
the idea that there is such a thing as
a permanent road. This delusion,
says the department, has been re-
sponsible for much disregard Of road
maintenance. None of the state
highway departments. however. any
longer harbors this error it Is now
thoroughly understood by these pub
lie agencies that all roads. regardless
of type gradually depreciate and
wear out under the wheels of We
hicles and the action of the weather.
To keep a road in continuously good
order. 1t is necessary to start main
tanning it the day its construction is
coronlafnd