The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-01-04
225 Miles Of State
 Roads Built In 1881
Dirt Road Act Contributed Largely to Increase in
 Mileage Says Highway Com John A. Macdonald

states 169 towns to be expended for whatever road improvement the towns might choose.
 Putting the town aid program into effect in addition to maintain- ing the trunkline and state aid pro- grams on as large scale as was financially possible required an inn mense amount of planning and
 preparation. yet the department was able to announce the first of the town aid projects within six days after the appropriation be- came effective.
 The first of the town aid lettings was announced on July and 1t in- cluded twenty-one projects cover- ing the improvement of approXi- mately forty eight miles of road Another letting followed, exactly one week later and groups of prof ects were then announced for con tract bid almost weekly until Octo- Der. All of the lettings combined brought the total length of road assigned for improvement under the town aid act to 379 miles. They included work on 456 sec tions of Connecticut highway in 136 towns.
 Of this town aid work which was assigned in the years numer- ous contract lettings, 115 miles of work was completed.
 The trunkline and state aid op- erations during the year were nat urally more limited than in seVer- al years past both because of the fact that the town aid act removed $3,000,000 from the available funds and because much of the work originally planned for 1881 was brought forward into 1880 in TO- sponse to President Hoover's plea for rushing the work in all states ;,s a means of relieving the un- employment situation.
 Moreover, the highway depart ment income which is limited to motor vehicle registration and li- cense fees and the gasoline tax was affected by the prevailing econom- ic conditions, so that the primary and secondary road program could not be extended.
 During the year, however, the department completed 110 miles of trunkline and state aid construc- tion and reconstruction, bringing the years total mileage to 225.
 During the six months prior to the starting of town aid work, there were two large highways let ,ings which with few exceptions included all of the work assigned for the trunkline and state aid network. Both of these lettings were advanced just two months akcad of the time for which they had been planned, funds becoming availa ble from motor vehicle regis trations which made 1t possible to extend this further help to the un- employment situation.
 The years first letting was made on cids received January ,. It included approximately one million dollars worth of work and some thirty miles of highway ini- provement. The announcement of these projects brought overwhelm- ing response from contractors, the number of bids received. 21O, breaking all previous records for a single letting. This record, incl dentally, was again shattered dur ing the year on the second of the town aid lettings on July 20 when oA9 bids were submitted.
 Several outstanding events fea- tured the highway departments year in addition to the actually completed construction and recon- struction. During the latter part of January and the first ten days of February, the department was forced into one of the most difi- cult battles with the elements that it has encountered in several years. For two weeks, the Connecticlt eli mate threw upon the highways an almost continuous barrage Of snow, sleet slush and ice which kept the departments 200 ploughs and sweepers and their crews on constant duty, the men at times working without stop for thirty six hours or more cleaning the roads and sanding them to prevent 
 Tn the highway sanding opera tions this year, it will be possible to accomplish the work more et- ficiently and more rapidly with the use of the four automatic sand which the department purchased during the year. The and their method of op- eration were recently described with illustrations in the news papers, so it is sufficient here to- state that one spreader can accom- plish the sanding work formerly done by sixty men and will relieve these men for other duties in cons junction with the job of making roads safe for winter travel.
 Early in the spring, as a means of aiding motorists to check tbeip