The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1937-01-28
Cook Outlines
Road Status
SNOW PROBLEMS AMONG
TOPICS IN REPORT
OF ENGINEER

engineer, in his report to the
county commissioners at their
annual meeting.
Mr.. Cook said, During the past
year the county highway depart
ment has had charge of the
maintenance of 237 miles of State
Aid roads. The routine mainten-
ance cost of this has been $69.69
per mile, which is almost exactly
1884 and 1885.
81 believe we would be effect
ing a permanent economy in pur-
chasing adequate snow removal
equipment before next winter.
The people demand that the roads
be opened within a reasonable
time after snow storms. There
are eight towns in this county
which are not situated on trunk
highways and which must depend
on our roads for their communl-
cation with the rest of the world.
This becomes increasingly i'm
portant when we consider that
six of these eight towns are on
branch lines of the railroad and
with the decrease in railroad
business, the companies make
very little effort to open their
tracks after storms; that seven of
these towns have no doctor; and
that six get their entire mail
over our roads; not to mention
the large percentage of food and
other supplies that come to all
communities over truck lines.
Much Construction
This year we carried on the
heaviest reconstruction program
that has been carried on in Red
wood county in recent years. 24.3
miles were built under the feder-
al W.P.S.O. plan. Under this
plan, the federal government paid
the greater portion of the con-
Struction costs; the county furn-
iShing the culvert material and a
small per cent of the construction
costs. These jobs cost an aver
age of 1919 per mile for grading,
1904 per mile for culvert mater
ial
"All our grading jobs were
built to our new standard 100
foot right-of-way. This cross Sec
ton requires an extra II feet of
land from property owners on
each side of the road. This extra
land is used in backsloping,
which gives us a higher grade
and back slope that can be
farmed and properly taken care
of, as well as snow slope that
eliminates a great deal of snow
fence and snow removal. These
jobs are slightly more expensive
to build but a lot less expensive
to maintain.
In doing this work we receiv-
ed excellent cooperation from
the property owners all along the
way. There were 80 miles of
this type road built in the county
this year. This means that there
was so miles of right-of-way to
secure. This was all secured
without expense to the county,
other than time and mileage, on
all but two pieces of property in
volving three-fourthS of a mile
Past this land, it was necessary
to use the old narrow and deep
type of ditch, as the engineers
office felt that the county could
not afford to establish a policy of
paying for right-of-way.
Built Stone Bridge
"a 6O-foot stone bridge was
built south of Lamberton on
State Aid road No. 6 as a Works
Progress administration project,
the government furnishing the
labor and the county furnishing
the material, supervision, and
equipment.
Besides bridges the county has
used considerable WPA labor in
crawling and re-graveling roads.
This has been considerable saw
ing to the county because prac-
tically all of the costs of this ex-
cept material has been paid for
by WPA."
Outlining the problem of re-
placing outWorn roads and
bridges he told the commission
erS, There are still II miles of
State Aid roads that are in seri-
Gus need of reconstruction. The
worst of these are the road south
of Lucan, the road south of Mil
roy, the roads from BelvieW to
Seaforth and from Belview to
Delhi, the road south of Clements,
and State Aid road No.
through Brookville township. The
above roads have all been in
service over 20 years. The ditch
es are practically level with the
surrounding country and present
our greatest problem, together
with the greatest expense, in both
summer maintenance and snow
removal. A few years ago we
embarked on a plan of recon-
Structing certain percentage of
all State Aid roads each year;
the idea of this plan being that
if road could reasonably be ex-
pected to last IS years, one
twenty-fifth of our system should
be reconstructed each year. This
plan is sound and, over a period
of years, will work the greatest
amount of good to the greatest
number of people at the least
cost. This policy should not be
deviated from if there is posi-
BILE way Of financing it.
Bridges A Problem
''The bridges of this county are
fast becoming serious problem.
On the State and County Aid
roads, we have supervision of 159
bridges; practically all of which
were built between 25 and 40
years ago. Over 60 per cent of