The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-03-01
Highway Budget Shows
Cost of Gravel In State
Light Traffic Routes Get More for
Maintenance than Heavy Traf-
- fc Pavements

/ The difference in the cost OF
maintaining paved and unpaved
roads is shown in the allotments
made by the Minnesota Highway
department to the sixteen main
tenance districts for the current
year. The allotment is based upon
past experience and a careful
analysis of traffic and road conii-
tons in each district.
For routine maintenance of
gravel and earth roads, so cents
per mile per car is allowed, so that
road with $50 cars per day will
get $75 per mile, one with 1000
cars gets $500, and SO on. This
covers only blading, smoothing the
surface, filling chuck holes, etc. II
does not cover reshaping or re-
crawling. Where no regraveling
is done, a deferred maintenance
charge" must be added in figuring
the annual cost of a gravel road
as a gravel surface wears out in
from three to seven years under
trunk highway traffic.
For pavements a uniform allot-
ment of SIS per mile is made TO,
slab repairs. This covers both
tarring cracks and replacing any
sections which may have been dam
aged by settlement of the subgrade
An additional allotment of 500
per mile is made for shoulder re.
pairs for 1928, due to the heavy
rains which caused considerable
damage in 1927, especially on roads
paved within the last two years
Once grass gets a firm hold
shoulder repairs are much less, in
many places almost nil.
There will be no deferred main
tenance charge" in the pavements
Pavements as built today show nc
wear from traffic, and with prompt
but inexpensive, maintenance will
be as good twenty years from now
as when built.
On the oiled and tarred roads an
allotment of 12h cents per mile
per daily car is made, or 1925 pei
mile on a road carrying 1000 cars
per day. This covers only patch
ing and blading, and does moi
cover original treatment or re
treatment. Here, as on gravel
roads, a deferred maintenance
charge" must be considered each
year when the road does not get 9
treatment.
A uniform allotment of $10C
per mile is made on all routes fol-
roadside maintenance, which is not
affected by traffic. This covers re.
pair of guard rail and culverts
cleaning drains and bitches, now
ing weeds and removing rubbish
and all other work on the strip be-
tween the travelled roadway and
the edge of the right of way.
Special allotments will be made
for bridge maintenance, reshapine
and regraveling, calcium chloride
and bituminous treatments, snow
fence, snow removal and other
items which cannot be estimated in
advance on a mileage basis.
The total maintenance allotment
will be held down to $4,5OO,OOO
the same as in 1927. eve could
spend a great deal more in trying
to keep the gravel roads smooth
but it would leave that much less
for new construction and we would
have nothing to show for it at the
end of the year," said Commits.
sioner C. M. Babcock. "With the
allotment we are making, grave
roads with less than 500 cars pei
day can be kept in good condition
in normal weather. Unpaved roads
carrying heavier traffic may moi
lbe smooth at all times, but it j.
doubtful if they would be much
better if we spent more money
Five hundred vehicles per day j.
the economical limit Of grave
road"