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Show Road Building By Contract Is Most Economical Washington. n- c- July Do-,,rwwion-loni experience dictates tint the contract method should ,,iviiomiii:iK particularly in high-VAV high-VAV construction, in the public works program now under consideration con-sideration as n weans of checking "mount inK- unemployment. This assertion was anado hero o.lay by Kurton 1 Miller, mtinap-n- director, Hi-hway Contractor Contrac-tor Diviwion of the American Ivoad builders' Association, who advocated also that "the highway pro-ram ishould be sufficiently long-range in its scope, with known amounts to -be expended projected several years into the future, so contractors can invest judiciously in necessary equipment, thus saving- taxpayers many millions." Citing Public Roads Administration Adminis-tration figures showing that the levelling: of prices of materials aiu labor has brought contractors contrac-tors folds down from last year's postwar highs, Mr. Miller pointed point-ed out that highway work bids received re-ceived in the first quarter of 1949 averaged two and one-half percent lower than those in the last quarter quar-ter of 1948. Jn the. same period this year, he said, 118 new bidders bid-ders were low bidders, and in addition ad-dition there were some 200 new bidders who were unsuccessful in their attempts to obtain new contracts.. con-tracts.. "There is no doubt that contractors' contrac-tors' know-how again is available in ample quantity," Mr. Miller declared. "How closely they are bidding the highway work is reflected re-flected in Public Roads Administration Admini-stration data which show that even under the high prices of last year," contractors' bids averaged 1.8 percent below estimates of engineers en-gineers of the constructing divisions divi-sions and subdivisions of government. govern-ment. In April of this year, on work estimated by the engineers to cost $69,429,466, contractors bid in the work 9.5 percent below that figure." fig-ure." Hailing this showing as "the beginning be-ginning of the return to the marked mar-ked superiority and proven economy econ-omy by contract work over day labor work before the war," the ARBA official cited the following from a PRA study during the made-work program of the depression de-pression : "Forty-six states and one Territory Ter-ritory built 53 highway - projects by day labor after first taking competitive bids in order to get a basis of comparison of the two methods. The total cost of the 53 projects by day labor was 18 percent per-cent in excess of the bid prices. On 40 of the jobs the day labor cost exceeded the bid prices by 31 percent per-cent and on 13 the cost was less than the bid prices by 10 per cent. |