Evening star., 1925-09-16
POOR ASPHALT NOW BEING USED
ON MOST STREETS In CAPITAL
Paving Administration Is Criticized for Using Oil
Product-Cuaranteed Only One Year-Just
Few Firms Get Contracts for Work.

longevity and endurance OF these Two
kinds of .surfacing material. They
refer all inquiries to the Bureau of
Public Roads of the Department of
Agriculture.
Moot Question.
Engineers in charge of the Bureau
Of Public Roads decline to express an
official opinion as TO the relative
wearing qualities of lake and oil
asphalt, pointing out that it is
moot question in the profession, some
of the best engineers contending that
the imported lake product is superior,
while others. equally recognized for
their ability, say there Is little, If any,
difference between performance rec
ords. They all face the same fact
that confronts the District of Colum-
bia highway engineers-oii asphalt has
not been in use as long as lake
asphalt, and so time alone can Judge
between them.
The real test as to which is better
or whether each is equally good is the
ultimate useful life OF the street be-
fore it has to be resurfaced.
You have to pay more for natural
lake asphalt because it is imported
from Trinidad or Venezuela, with long
haulage charges. 1t Is because the
oil asphalt Is 30 much cheaper that
the District highway engineers are
having 1t used on our streets here.
BY using the cheaper product. which
may or may not be just as good,
they can get a great deal more patch
ing and resurfacing done with avail
able funds just when there is far
more Of this work ahead of them than
they can possibly get appropriations
for.
Lake asphalt comes to about $50
a ton and oil asphalt SIS, $16 or $18 a
ton. The cost of laying is the same.
The municipal authorities take all
bids with alternative figures for lake
or any oil asphalt that will meet the
specifications. A ton Of asphalt will
spread about 80 square yards of street
surface. They find the differential
range is from s 10 20 cents per square
yard. Then they select what they
consider the most advantageous, based
on this differential.
Saving I'm Oil Asphalt.
Usually they save 10 to Is cents per
square yard by using the oil instead
of lake asphalt. With an asphalt
yardage of 250,o00 for the current
year, 1t is simple multiplication to see
that saving of $4,000 to $4,000 can
be effected through use of oil asphalt
money they can resurface 10000 to
Is, 900 additional square yards Of
streets where such rebuilding is
urgently needed. The situation Is
such that while there Is zeal not to
endanger the wearing quality OF a
street vet the administrative author
tiles must lean toward economy as
an additional reason for using oil
asphalt.
1t must not be understood that
those in charge OF our street resurfac-
ing have ruthlessly stopped using lake
asphalt. In fact, last year one of the
big resurfacing jobs was for s3,043
square yards of lake asphalt laid on
II streets over old macadam and
granite block roadways. This work
was done by the Crawford Co. 1t was
thought that the extra cost for the
lake asphalt was justified by the very
peculiar need for strength and endur.
ance in that blanket.
It should be taken into considerar
ton, also, that the original oil as
phalt offered on the market. some Of
which was used on the earliest
streets thus treated In the Capitol,
was of rather poor quality. 1t was
admittedly not produced as a primary
product of distillation, but was an
out-and-out by-product. The primary
object Of the distillation was gasoline
and other lighter distillates that come
over in the process ,of refining the
crude oil from the wells. Later on it
was disclosed that there was a big
market in the United States for a do
mestic source of supply of specially
prepared asphalt for road surfacing.
The refining processes were improved
so that far better residual asphalt
resulted. The petroleum division of
the United States Bureau of Mines
says that very important changes
have been made in the refining proc
esses during the last few years With
the direct purpose Of improving the
road-wear qualities of oil asphalt.
The behavior Of the very first
streets here on which Oil asphalt was
used should not, therefore, be taken
as illustrative of the performance Of
the oil asphalt now being used-it
should be discounted as admittedly in
ferior. Some advocates Of OIL asphalt
contend that 1t should prove superior
to lake asphalt because it is produced
with primary regard and special
scientific study to build up the prop
critics needed In road construction
The streets in the National Capital
which should be taken as typical of
what oil asphalt streets ought to be
are not more than 10 years old, so
they cannot be compared outright
against the lake asphalt streets that
are 20 to 40 years in use.
So the question is-and it is an open
one among those who should be best
Informed on the subject-"Which is
the better buy-fake or oil asphalt? =?
Is 1t cheaper to spend 10 or Is cents
more per square yard for the lake
asphalt surfacing? Which will cost
more for repairs-a continuing cost
as against the initial cost?
AS matters stand today the main
tenance cost for Washington streets
is much smaller than in any of the
large cities of the country, with the
single exception of Baltimore, where
hardly any of the pavements are more
than 10 years old. This was shown in
a recent survey at the request of Capt.
r. D. Stephens of the Budget Bureau.
Most of the larger cities of the coun-
try We're paying five and six times as
much for street maintenance as Wash
ington.
Lake Asphalt Best.
But after all these arguments, the
contractors. superintendent, foremen
and those who daily lay the asphaltic
cement are quite generally of the opin-
ion that eventually lake asphalt will
prove superior to oil asphalts in the
incontrovertible test OF time.
The District engineer of highways
absolutely refuses to take sides in this
bitter controversy. Yet during the last
10 or IL years that the oil asphalts
have been on the market the District
street authorities have used much
more Oil asphalt than lake asphalt
(only about Is or 20 per cent of the
whole being natural lake asphalt) sim
ply because it has been cheaper, and
with more streets to surface than they
could possibly cover with the appro-
priation they had to stretch they got
over the largest possible yardage.
Then there is the third criticism