Smyrna times., 1927-04-20
EXPERIMENT ON. BRENFORD ROAD
WITH 9-F0OT WIDTH STRETCH
NEW DEPARTURE in ROAD THIS
NARROW TO BE TRIED OUT
State Highway Department to Open
Bids Wednesday for Road Below
Smyrna, Boulevard to BrenfOrd


To try to accommodate widely scat
tered citizens along lateral or side
roads with improved concrete high
ways, the State Highway Commission
on Wednesday, April n, will open
bids for a mile stretch Of nine-foot
road from Brenford to the State
Highway This departure to a road
of such narrowness has been consider
ed for a long time by the Highway
Commission. They have looked at it
from many angles and have conclud-
ed that a 9-foot concrete highway,
supplemented with well-built-up grav-
el shoulders would suffice, because the
light traffic on the road could pass
safely even thought passing vehicles
have to drive on the side Of the road.
Another reason for building a 9-foot
concrete road as compared with
wider Stag and dirt road is that
while the concrete road would cost
from $4,000 to $4,000 and the Stag
and dirt road about $4,000 a mile,
the cost Of upkeep and the life Of the
concrete road would be much more
economical and longer. Should this
departure, which is really in the way
of an experiment, prove as successful,
as it is hoped it will, then it is likely
that other narrow stretches Of con
crete for lateral roads will be built
rather than the wider Stag dirt road.
Feel Extra Gasoline Tax a Mistake
Officials of the Highway Depart
mentw no opposed the passage of the
bill imposing an extra cent gasoline
tax on motorists of the state are
largely of the opinion that if the old
price of two cents a gallon had been
have been greater because the tax
would have been lower than in Penn
sylvania or Maryland Under the law
as passed by the recent Legislature
this gas tax must pay the interest on
bonds on dead" roads. BY this is
meant roads that were built many
years ago and then destroyed and re-
built with more durable material, yet
the cost of the first roads is still to
be paid The State Highway Depart
ment, through the gasoline tax is also
called upon to meet the interest on
bonds on roads over which it has no
control whatsoever.
Question of Unfair Taxation Arises
But the chief complaint that the
city motorists have, is that they and
not the rural residents has to pay the
bill. According to the provisions of
the gasoline tax law as enacted a few
years ago, the farmer who has a
piece of motor apparatus used on his
farm is exempted from paying any
gasoline tax. That is the only way
in which the gas tax could be legislat-
ed. Owners Of trucks in cities who
use these trucks for their deliveries
are asking the question now with the
extra cost of a cent tax why they
have to pay the tax and the farmer is
exempted 1t is the contention in
many sources that some farmers who
have tractors buy the gasoline for
these tractors and if they want to use
some of the "gas" in their pleasure
cars do SO but forget to pay tax on
it. Due to many complaints made to
him c. d. Buck, Chief Engineer Of the
Department, is endeavoring
to have contractors engaged in widen
ing the roads to exercise a bit more
courtesy to motorists. According to
a protest made to Mr.. Buck the var
ious trucks hauling sand and cement
and stone to the concrete mixers not
only dominate the highway, refusing
to give an equitable share of the road
to motorists, but appear to be abso-
lutely Indifferent to the rights of mo-
torists.