The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1926-12-30
1926 ROAD WORK
OF BENEFIT TOCITY
Continued from Page One

= Continued from Page One
Maintenance of the trunk highways
will cost about S4,500,000, admin
istration, $150,00O, sinking fund,
(county reimbursement bonds)
100000 and interest on these
bonds, $1,610,000.
The maintenance division, be-
sides regular patrol maintenance
on the entire trunk highway sys-
tenn, has maintained during por-
? tions of the year, 511 miles of de-
tours, applied new gravel on POS
miles and resurfaced 78S miles.
The crawling, resurfacing, stock
piling and repairing required SAL
500 cubic yards of gravel. The
maintenance division also oiled or
tarred 200 miles, applied calcium
chloride binder once on 1919 miles
and twice on APO miles. All the
pavement was gone over and
cracks filed once or twice. Other
maintenance operations included
755 miles of reshaping, building
SO miles of detours, scarifying 1913
miles, brushing and clearing 866
miles, moving $4,000 cubic yards
of dirt in cuts and fills, 1859, 900
feet of lditching, placing 16,780
feet of drain tile and 1907 cubic
yards of rip rap. New guard rail
built totaled $4,000 feet. The
maintenance division also rebuilt
~ bridges, repaired 20 and re-
floored &c, and placed 842 metal
culverts, 100 concrete culverts and
35 wood culverts.
Taking the work done by the two
divisions together, the status of the
trunk highway system at the end
of the year is as follows: paved,
812.00 miles; heavy gravel, A.
098.70; light gravel 1,04S. 15;
bituminous treated 1872 90; main
tanned earth, TAT. 10. Of the to-
tai of 6,938 miles in the system,
$3.50 are now graded to standard
width of 80 feet or more.
The trunk highway system is
only five and a half years old, and
at the end of that period less than
IL per cent is unsurfaced, and
practically every mile of the sys-
tenn has been kept passable dur
lng the year except during unusual
weather conditions such as we had
this month";" said Commissioner C.
M. Babcock.
IT our traffic had remained as it
was In 1921, we would be in good
shape to take care of it. But au-
tomobile registration has doubled
In flve years and placed a burden
upon some of our trunk highways
winch they are not capable of car
rylng. There are few stretches
OF pavement carrying more than
o,OO0 vehicles per day which
should be widened, for the ac-
comodation of the traffic, but as
lar as maintenance cost is con-
cerned, there is no perceptible in
crease with such heavy traffic, and
the need of this widening is not
80 immediate.
Our most pressing problem is
Inc maintenance and Improvement
OF the heavier travelled gravel
roads. In spite of the paving we
have done, the mileage of unpayed
road carrying more than the eco
nomlcal limit of 500 cars per day
Is increasing instead of decreas.
ing. We had at our last traffic cen
.sus 900 miles of unpaved road
carrying more than 1000 cars per
DAY and $500 miles carrying from
POO to 1000 cars per day. The
hard surfacing of about 900
miles of the most heavily travelled
highways is particularly urgent if
we want to give our road users the
service to which they are entitled.
For roads carrying less than
bOO cars per day, gravel surface is
not only the most economical but it
can be kept in good condition in
any ordinary weather. With traf-
nc from 500 to 1000 cars per day.
gravel can be kept in fair condi-
ton In favorable weather, although
itSbreaks down quickly both in
wet weather and in prolonged dry
spells, and the cost, in the long
run, is greater than the cost Of
pavement. But where traffic ex-
ceeds 1000 cars per day, it is al