The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-05-26
Highway Tour
Continued from page y

Inc nl1e-nOur tour also pro-
vided a good look at the High
way Department as a progress
sive experimenter and student Of
cost-saving. just west of Farm
vile on Route 460. for example,
the 37-passenger bus encourage
dismounted to watch a highway
crew in a brand new operation:
squirting water, fertilizer, grass
seed and wood cenulose fiber
mulch. all in one green-tinted
mixture. against the CALLED sides
Of red clay highway cuts.
In one spraying. the ingredients
for grassy road shoulders are
laid down. from 10-2O-lO fertilizer
to Kentucky 81 Fescue seed and
a covering mulch of "Turfiber,"
a cellul0se by product of Inter-
national Paper Company's South
ern Kraft Division.
Another stop on Route 800 be-
tween Meherrin and Keysville
was on $685. 900 contract where
Adams Construction Company, of
Roanoke, is building six miles of
divided highway, using existing
Route $50 as one lane.
Here, explained M. w. Ruther-
ford. a supervisor for the con-
tractor. the state is making two
important studies concurrently
with construction. In one. under
the supervision of the Highway
Research Board at Charlottes-
vile. a State-operated research
facility, cost studies are being
made in the use Of local material.
Disintegrated ranite, hauled
from a bank near Meherrin is be-
ing used to build three-inch
subbase, $1,000 tons of it.
Research Explained
Rutherford said it is saving
about $l.50 a cubic yard over
standard, longer-haul material.
Over the entire S655 900 contract,
he estimates the savings will be
$4,000 The research may lead
to beneficial locality-contractor
team.
On the same job, the total
thickness of the road from sub
base to surfacing is being varied
in blocks from 81 inches to 27
inches in an effort to establish
the sturdiest thickness for a road
carrying heavy truck traffic. The
daily vehicular count on that
stretch Of Route 800 is 1900, Of
which 1000 are trucks.
Also inspected was a $902, 900
project on Route 304 in Halifax
county between Fosters Store
and South Boston, where English
Construction Company of Alta
vista, is constructing IA miles of
dual lane highway and a bridge
over Banister River. Here the
daily traffic count is 1920 We
hicles with 1,l50 or 36 per cent
trucks.
The last project visited was an
other in the states major empha-
sis on dividing lanes. This was
one on Virginia S Well-traveled
southern east-West link, Route So,
between Danville and the Henry
county line toward Martinsville
Lunch With Commissioner
A luncheon stop was made near
South Boston, with Tucker c..
Watkins, Jr., highway commits
sioner for the district, greeting
the tourists. The Virginia Road
builders Association was host.
Accompanying the newsmen
were specialists from. the Lynch
burg District office and the chief
engineers in the districts five
RESIDENCES. including John L.
Parker, of the Dillwyn Resi-
dency. They described various
important un-visited projects as
the bus sped through their areas.
Road construction is a comph-
Gated business, we learned. The
Route % project in Danville rep
resented an example of the cart
before the-horse complication of
urban development preceding
adequate road building which
abcunds all over the fast-grow-
ing U. S.
To construct 2.84 miles the con-
tractor gets 1878 ,645, but the job
will cost ST 1906, $40. Added must
be 1925, 900 to acquire urban prop
erty rights Of way; $500 for
moving back water. gas, sewer,
power and tie ephone lines;
$l45, 900 for engineering; $44 ,450
in adjustments to a utility firm,
and miscellaneous costs.
It comes to something like
$4OO, 600 a mile for this kind of
urban construction!
We're glad, however, we read
completely the materials given us
IN neat manila folders. In dealing
with such astronomical figures,
it's reasSuring to learn that our
highways cost only IL cents of the
driving dollar" Only parking
charges, or II cents, take less.
The other fractions of each dol
lar the car owner spends are.
repairs and maintenance. az
cents. gas and oil 16 rantc ond