The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-01-20
rs with the increase Of road mile.

age. s~
III you. will add up the miles Of
unfinished contracts, the miles Of
work to be. placed under contract
this year, then add about 400 miles
OF grading and 400 miles of gravel
ing, which we will be surveying and
getting ready for next year, you will
find we will have 2,544 miles alive
on our books and on which we will
be working ut some stage or other
this year. The state highway COM
mission should be interested in as
many roads in North Dakota as the
federal government is and our state
highway system is practically the
same as the federal aid system. If
any department is covering toe much
territory 1t Is not the state highway
commission.
Lettings To Be Held systematically
"The large amount of work on
hand is mentioned so that your coun-
ty commissioners will understand
why all the contracts cannot be
awarded in February. Nearly every
day we receive letters asking to
have contract letting on some par
ticular job at some certain time. We
would be very glad to accommodate
you If we could. The prelimin Try
surveys were not started early last
year and the large number Of re-
quests not anticipated so that when
the contractors shut down in Novem-
Der most of our men went out on new
surveys and are only recently get
ting back to the winter work Of MAX
ing plans. The lettings will be
started in February and continue on
through March and April, possibly
later, arranged to come in some kind
of order to save time and the travel
ing expense of jumping from one
part of the state to another distant
point. We will not be able to pick
out a project which some individual
or counties are interested in and put
that ahead.
"As far as getting any actual
work done on the road by the con-
tractor is concerned, it is immater-
ial whether the contract is let in
February or in April. This spring,
however, We propose to send the
preliminary surveyors out early and
in sufficient numbers so it will be
unnecessary to keep them out most
of the winter.
Contractors 70 BE Rated
"There are probably some contrac-
tors present. They will be interest
ed to know that we do not propose
to advertise for bids until there is
n reasonable assurance that federal
authorization will be on hand rat the
time of the letting. 1t has been very
unsatisfactory to the contractor who
has submitted successful bid and
then finds he must wait a month or
SO for federal authorization before
he can go to work. We are also pre-
pairing Il list of contractors giving
each one responsibility rating on
u basis of how much work he can
handle in season, how he cooper
ates with out engineers toward get
ting the work done properly and
what financial standing he has. This
will assist in awarding Of contracts
and will be welcomed by the best
contractors.
"Close attention should be given
in the future to the working arrange
ment between the county and state
with the view Of eliminating the
red tape involved when too many
Independent government departments
attempt to cooperate at the same
time preserving such checks and
balances, which are cxerted one upon
Luc OIucTy AS may De Oh vAlue. III
J our dealings with the various coun-
ties, the highway commission takes
an impartial attitude and we have
nothing to conceal from them or
from the public. While the chief en-
gineer is the one member of the
highway commission who devotes his
whole time to the work and is ac-
countablc for the details, the gener-
al policy is supervised by the COM
mission, meeting generally. opcc a
month about the oath. At such
meetings the chief engiener has one
vote along with the other four. The
oates of the meetings of the highway
commission, during the past few
months. have been announced we'll
in advance, have been open to repre-
sentatives of the press and any per-
son is permitted to bring before the
commission any matter of interest,
any grievance or suggestion"