14 HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Road Repairs and Maintenance
IS?3
Get Your
THAT highways constructed with
borrowed money should be
strictly maintained, is the key
note of a chapter in Department of
Agriculture Bulletin No. 136, deal
ing with highway bonds. It has not
been customary for officials to face
frankly the cost of the maintenance
and repair of bond-built highways at
the time the bonds are issued and be
fore construction begins. In fact, the
authors of the bulletin point out, in
the majority of cases where bonds
have been issued by local authorities
there has been no provision what
ever for maintaining the roads when
built. This is perhaps the greatest
defect in the method of building
highways by Issuing bonds.
Maintenance Necessary.
Maintenance, the highway experts
of the Department point out, is
necessary in order to insure to the
community the maximum economic gpectively, $642,
DciviLc uj me roau, ana aiso to pre
serve the investment. The cost of
maintenance and repairs must, there,
fore, be studied at the outset. In
the absence of general data, the re
ports on maintenance from states
which have highway departments
cost of such re-surfacing is not yet
known.
Cost of Repairs.
The average cost for repair and
maintenance of 7300 miles of high
way In Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New York, New Jersey and Rhode
Island for the year 1912 was about
JS0O per mile. A large part of this
money was expended for bituminous
resurfacing and bituminous surface
treatment. There is some question
whether the expenditure correctly
measures the average cost of repair
ing and maintaining bituminous
macadam roads.
In the State of New York, however,
for the years 1911 and 1912 the av
erage cost for repair and mainte
nance was $724 per mile upon a total
average of 2861 miles'. The annual
cost of repair and maintenance on
Massachusetts State roads for the
years 1910, 1911 and 112 was, re-
$647 and $676 per
mile for about 850 miles. For the
most part these figures for New York
and Massachusetts represent the cost
per mile of resurfacing with bitumin
ous material and of maintaining bituminous-macadam
and water-bound
macadam roads by surface treatment
It is clear, therefore, that $700 per
mile is not an excessive estimate at
p'resent for the annual cost of all re
pair and maintenance of bituminous
macadam roads.
Kins ul War.
A proud King dreamed in his gilded
chair;
He dreamed and sighed, for the lands
were fair!
A King said "Yea!" It was but a
breath!
And a million men marched toward the
' gates of death.
A million wives gasped as their hus
bands sped;
A million babes stafved as their
fathers bled. '
A King sought gain in the north and
south
i million men marched toward
the cannon's mouth.
Thomas Curtis Clark.
And
should be of interest to county of- with bituminous material.
liters preparing to issue road build
ing bonds.
The following opinions as to main
tenance cost represent the results of
careful analyses of state highway re
ports, as well as much first-hand In
formation gathered by the Depart
ment's specialists:
Gravel Roads That Last.
Well-constructed gravel roads will
sometimes sustain several years of
traffic without showing marked de
terioration, even when there has
been no maintenance. Such roads'
sometimes even Improve during the
second season; more frequently,
however, they show ruts or the for
mation of chuck holes. It can not be
expected that the average life of a
gravel surface will be greater than
that of a macadam, surface.
The average Interval for re
surfacing macadam roads is between
six and seven years. If a sum equal
to two-thirds of the original cost of
the gravel surface itself Is provided
for renewals at six-year intervals, It
should be estimated at from $150 to
$250 per mile per year. If $30 Is
then allowed for annual dragging and
small repairs, the total annual cost
of repair and maintenance of gravel
roads would be from $180 to $280
per mile.
The annual cost of strict mainte
nance is sometimes below $30. In
Bennington County, Vermont, during
1912, 175 miles of gravel roads were
maintained at a cost of $20.70 per
mile. The annual cost of mainte
nance and repair on sand-clay roads,
including all necessary re-surfacing
at periodic intervals, should not be
fixed at less than 10 per cent of the
original cost.
Macadam Roads.
The cost of repair and maintenance
Of water-bound macadam roads has
been determined with considerable
exactness from Massachusetts figures
and checked by re-surfacing charges
in other states and in Germany.
From $100 to $125 per year ordinar
ily pays for necessary small repairs,
such aa patching, cleaning culverts,
etc., and from $400 to $425 per year
is the necessary annual charge tor
re-surfacing at periods varying from
six to seven years.
The sum of $525 per mile, on an
average, should therefore absolutely
maintain macadam roads if changes
and increases of traffic are not ex
cessive. It must be understood, how
ever, that in many instances where
macadam sufficed for the volume
and character of traffic prior to 1906,
it will not withstand the action of
the motor vehicle traffic, which hag
developed since that time.
Many miles of ordinary or water
bound macadam road have been re
surfaced with bituminous materials
and many miles of new bituminous
macadam road have been constructed.
The logical maintenance of such high
ways is a surface treatment with bi
tuminous material and rock screen
ings, clean gravel, or sharp sand.
The cost of such surface treatment is
from 4 to 12 cents per square yard,
and it may be expected to last from
one to three years, according to the
density of traffic and the success of
the application.
Theoretically, perfect surface
treatment would constitute absolute
maintenance tor a bituminous
macadam road. Such maintenance is
seldom or never realized and bituminous-macadam
roads doubtless re
quire resurfacing at intervals. The
PssCanadian Home
from the,
Canadian Darifir
VMIIMMIMII MVIIIV
s
ukmunY
ON'T waste your time and money on worn-out land that
is high-priced simply because it was once worth its
present price! The richest virgin soil is waiting for you
fa Manitoba and the Alberta-Saskatchewan district.
You can buy it- for practically the same price per acre
that the mere manuring per acre of soil in many parts
of the U. S. costsl Fertile Canadian West offers you not only soil
cf wondrous productivity, but it also offers you a splendid climate,
churches o( all creeds, splendid publio schools, exceptionally good
mprlcets. fine hotels and tr&ntnnrtflHnn fai-liftia that QrAtinwr.nltw4
We have a truly tiDlendid DrODOSition to makfl to nntf efirnfi fflrmprnrtn
tnen who wish to farm and who are sincere In their desire to utile in this country.
We actually are In a position to enable yon to own 10 acres for every acre that
you now own or farm and every acre here will produce double what worn-out
acre produces anywhere. On top of that, we give you
20 Years fa Pav for t 'oa snfhel'n'l tor from Sll to tt per acre. In
l tears 10 ray lOr II. irrigation districts the price is from 1.15 to i 5.
You pay merely one twentieth down. The balance Is split up Into 19 equnl pay
ments. The farm will more than meet the payments and your family's living ex
penses. Canadian Pacific farms pay for themselves over and over again before
the time the last payment falls due. We can refer you to tccrtt of farmers who
paid for their farms with Uie proceeds of just one crop!
You Are Loaned $2000.00 to Pay for Farm Improvement!
Here Is land adapted to grain Browing, to poultry raising, dairying, mixed
farming and to cattle, hog and sheep raising. Yon decide for yourself what kind
of farming you wish to follow. The Canadian 1'aclBc helps yo select the land
best adapted to your purposes. And then, If you so desire it, we arrange to have
Your Farm Made Ready by Experts Xl ftSVX
an expert on the case and select Ike farm that will txattly suit you the one that
Ton can farm to most advantage to youneltl Let us tell you about the 400.000.1X10
luheU:rop In Canada this year I Write fur Handsomely Illustrated Book.
L.O. THORNTON
DISTRICT REPRESENT ATI VB
171 Pine Street (Multnomah Hotel Bldf.), PORTLAND. OR.
m
'IF there is any particular commodity in which you
are interested, and you do not find it advertised in
these columns, let us help you. Write advertising
manager, Oregon-vVashington-ldaho Farmer, Ore
gonian building, Portland, Or.
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11
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