The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1938-01-20
ENGINEER OUTLINES
NEEDS IN COUNTY
ROAD REPORT

1to<1D O1t4
Increased costs in maintain
ing Worn-out roads, the desirable
ity of continuing worthwhile
WPA projects in place of "leaf
raking' activities, the advisable
ity of establishing road and
bridge levy figure and adhering
to it regardless of crop and other
economic conditions and prospects
of a county bridge reconstruction
program were among matters
taken up by County Engineer
Richard Cook in his annual re-
port to the board of county COM
missioners.
The entire report follows:
State Aid Maintenance
During the past year, the
county highway department has
had charge of the maintenance of
237 miles of state aid roads.
81 predicted in my 1886 report
that wet spring would increase
our routine maintenance costs.
This has been true on four roads.
The increased cost of routine
maintenance in state aid road No.
l was due entirely to the trouble
on the North Redwood hill. If
the cost of this were subtracted
from the total, our other costs on
this road would be almost exactly
the same as they were last year.
There is no special explanation
for the increased routine mainten-
ance cost of the other roads;
namely, state aid roads, 2, 7 and
II. However it is very interest
ing to note that these three roads
are the three roads which we
had originally intended to re-
build this year. This seems to
give us a definite relationship
between worn out roads and in
creased maintenance costs, and
substantiates what we already
knoW-that is, when a road has
worn about so far it is much
cheaper to rebuild it than to en-
deavor to maintain it.
"In addition to the routine
maintenance cost, our re-gravel-
ling cost has increased about 10
per cent. This is due almost en-
tirely to washouts, heavy rains,
etc., in early spring.
"Our snow blowing cost in
creased $40 per mile over our cost
for 1886. This is as we expected
as we knew that we had a very
severe winter with inadequate
equipment. l believe we would
have saved half the cost of them
had we purchased our rotaries
earlier in last season and I be-
lieve we have effected perman-
ent economy for future years by
their purchase.
Construction
''This year we carried on only
one construction job. This was
financed almost entirely by spe-
cial allotment from the state. The
actual construction cost, including
culvertS, on this job has been
S7,032.09 or about $1,000 per mile.
Of this amount, $5,942.47 was
furnished by the state. Right-of-
way, travelling and thing on this
job have been $3,058.73.
Works Progress Administration
'The Work Progress Admins
tration has spent $77,793.22 on
labor and $7,589.24 on materials
for projects in Redwood county.
Of this amount, 56,967.25 of lab
or and $6,083 IA of material was
spent on projects sponsored by the
county. $15,2310O in labor and
$944.69 in material was spent in
Redwood Falls on the school and
athletic field projects. $5,582.90
in labor was spent on projects in
all other villages and school dis
tricts throughout the county.
"Of the county sponsored pro-
jects about $4,000 was spent on
highway department projects, the
balance being spent at the Indian
Reservation and on the county
wide sewing project. Bridge re-
pair and painting, graveliing and
regravelling, the construction of
guard rail, ditching and the build
ing of dams and retaining walls
in the bitches were among the
important things done by these
crews on our highways.
"The largest job was the con-
struction of a 120-foot span over
the Cottonwood river a mile
north of Lamberton. To date we
have spent $10,663.13 and will
probably have to spend about
$4,000 more. This bridge con-
tains 594.8 cubic yards of concrete
and 147,980 pounds of steel and
would cost at least $4,000 if let
by contract at present prices. A
! similar bridge over the Cotton
wood river near Sanborn, being
built by the state highway depart
ment, was let for $4,000.
"There has been considerable
criticism of WPA projects
throughout the county and par
ticularly around Lamberton,
where several large projects have
been going continuously for over
three years. 1t is claimed that
very little is accomplished and the
jobs take three or four times as
long to complete as they should.
However it must be remembered
that these men work only ITO
hours a month whereas, if a con-
tractor had the job he would work
at least $50 hours a month and if
weather conditions were favor
able would double shift his men
and work about 400 hours
month. In addition to that, and
in accordance with the federal
program, we use maximum of
hand labor on all these jobs.
This, of course, takes longer than
machine methods.
There may be a question in