The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-08-26

the boosting for the community?
maintenance should gradually grow
less, for long period of years at
least.
Some time in the distant future it
will be necessary to resurface the
pavements, but it will be a long
time before we need worry about
that. The oldest rural concrete
pavement in the United States is
now thirty-three years old and shows
no indication of needing resurfac-
ing. With gravel, on the other hand,
the maintenance cost is constantly
increasing. 1t increases with the
traffic, it increases due to the fact
that machines are driven at higher
speed and throw more gravel off
the road, it increases because more
and more cars are being used the
year around. Even with this in
crease, gravel would still be cheaper
than concrete for moderate traffic,
when you consider the depreciation
and interest on a paved road. But
regardless of the cost and amount
of maintenance, you can never be
sure that gravel road will be good
the year around. At this season of
the year when roads should be at
their best, maintenance men may
have a gravel road as smooth as a
pavement on Saturday and by Sum
day afternoon it will be regular
washboard. A properly graded and
drained gravel road may stand up
with moderate traffic during long
wet period but as soon as the traf-
fic increases beyond certain point,
it may go to pieces over night. Then
the expense of rebuilding piles up
and the owners of automobiles must
pay the bills-not to mention the in
convenience they must suffer be-
cause of shattered roadway.
The maintenance expenditure in
1926 was nearly $4,500,000. This
year the allotment was held down
to the same amount, although the
department could probably have
spent twice that amount and still
not kept the trunk highways 100
per cent passable. If the entire
system were paved, a maintenance
allotment of $1,50O,00 would proba-
bly, be more than ample for all pur-
poess, including snow removal, so
that the entire system would be 100
per cent passable except perhaps a
few hours after severe snow storms.
The difference in the cost of opera
ton of automobiles on paved and
unpaved roads averages about 3
cents a mile, including the saving
in gasoline, tires, repairs deprecia-
ton. This is the difference between
operation on paved roads and good
average gravel or real dirt roads.
If gravel roads were in tip-top shape
all the time, the difference perhaps
would be only two to two and one
half cents but when gravel roads
are poor but passable, rough, and
rutty, the difference would be con-
siderably greater than three cents,
perhaps four or five cents. This
does not take into account loss of
time incurred on poor roads or time
and money lost when roads are i'm
passable.
The average person, city and
country, does about half his driv-
ing on trunk highways, some more,
some less. The average car in Min
nesota goes $500 miles year on
trunk highways. At three cents a
mile his saving between paved and
gravel roads that are passable the
year around would be SIS per year.
This is three times the license and
gas tax paid by the average car
owner. But if gravel roads cost
him SIS in dry year, they will cost
him much more in wet seasons.
Many who tried some of the roads
last spring paid ten, twenty or thirty
dollars for lows on a single trip,
and perhaps more in damage to their
cars. Those who stayed home in
many cases lost as much through
loss of business inability to get
needed supplies, or inability to r'o1-
ket their products at the right time.
Or consider it on a basis of single
mile. The average mile of trunk
highway carried 919 cars per day
when the highway department took
it's traffic census in August, 1926.
After deducting for the fact that
traffic is lighter in winter than in
summer. there were still more than
1000 miles on unpaved trunk high
ways which carried more than 100e
vehicles per day, many of them
carrying 1900 to 1000 cars per day
and one unpaved road with 600
cars per day.
Paving of a mile of road which
carries 1900 cars per day will
mean a saving to road users of $45
every day or $16.425 in year.
The SAVING to motorists would pay