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Show flFc Ire Entitled To Good Roads EDITORIAL The Springville Herald this week received a lengthy communication signed by Ray II. Leavitt, chairman of the state road commission and Layton Maxfield, a member of the commission, addressed to: Whom It May Concern and Citizens of Utah County. The communication as we see it summed up into one big excuse offered by the state road commission for the present condition of U. S. highway 91 and other Utah highways. The letter in part, from the commission reads : "Under the procedure established before a project proj-ect is approved for construction, a study must be made to show the ultimate routing in the area involved. This study includes surveys, traffic studies to show origin and destination of the various types of traffic, and approximate costs including right of way and property damages. When in the completion of these studies the final location for the ultimate highway does not follow the present road, analyses are made to show that many years will elapse before the new road can be placed in service. "Under these circumstances, improvements along the present roads adequate to serve traffic can prob- a number of years, and by a substantial amount of local traffic on a permanent basis. "In order to develop the required data, a study was undertaken through Utah County, and it is hoped that this will be completed in a reasonable period. per-iod. However, it is called to your attention at this time that the State Road Commission is faced with a serious problem in the shortage of qualified engineers to procure the necessary data as rapidly as we would desire. "When a report is completed, it is expected that an acceptable program can be agreed upon. by the State, the Public Roads Administration, and Utah County, which will involve improvement on the present pres-ent road, sufficient to satisfy present traffic demands and to the extent that our present limited-right of way will permit. "In the meantime, agreement has already been reached on the location, of two sections: one from Lehi-north, and one near Santaquin, both of which will be on a permanent routing. These two sections have been placed in an approved program and will be placed under construction as soon as plans' and specifications can be prepared. The estimated cost of these projects is approximately $450,000. "Although the State Road Commission is desir-' ous of proceeding to improve; the present routing of U. S. 91, as soon as possible, no federal funds may be made available for this work until such time as a definite and ultimate location of the future highway has been agreed upon and all facts relating to that location have been procured. "The State Road Commission does not have the necessary funds to do this construction on a strictly state-financed basis; therefore, we must wait until the federal requirements are justified so that sufficient suffici-ent money can be made available to do the necessary construction. "Until such time as construction may start, the State Road Commission intends to maintain the present pres-ent road to the best standard that our present facilities facili-ties will permit." In place of excuses from the Utah state road commission, the people of Utah county would appreciate appre-ciate an account of what has been done with the tax money which should have gone into improvement and up-keep of these highways. It has been reported recently that Idaho, last year, spent three times as much money on road improvement im-provement in that state as did Utah and that Nevada spent twice as much on their roads as did this state, Utah collected the tax money, where did it go? The state road commission states that there can't be any improvement on the present highway until federal funds are available and federal funds will not be available until such time as definite loca- (Continued on Page Twelve) . We Are Entitled To Good Roads (Continued from Page One) tion of the future highway has been agreed upon and all facts relating to that location can be procured, and then they proceed to point out that required data cannot be secured because the road commission is faced with the "serious problem," in the shortage of qualified engineers to procure the necessary data. But the fact remains after all the excuses, that Utah still has very bad roads and according to the state road commission, no funds with which to improve im-prove them. Construction of a super-highway to by-pass the cities in Utah county, the county which is second largest in the state, is certainly not favored by the people of this county and much less when the present highway is in such a deplorable condition. To the people of Utah county, the so-called problem prob-lem of securing data on possible construction of a proposed super-highway before improvement can be made on the present highway seems fantastic to say the least. The people of this county do not Oppose construction construc-tion of a super-highway, if it is needed but they do oppose further plans for such until the present highway high-way is brought up to a 4-lane standard highway and maintained in a manner necessary for present traffic and future development of this section. We feel that the state road commission has supported sup-ported the plans thus far for the super-highway and i are now offering their excuses. Indeed, according to the state road commission, Utah is a poor state. No funds to fix the highways until we get federal aid. No federal aid until we get complete data on the super-highway and no chance to get the data for some time, for lack of enough qualified engineers. Members of the state road commission, how did you get us in such a predicament? Where has the highway tax money gone? |