Show r the relation of the press to utah s state road program in common with other states of the union utah ha hit undertaken an ambi bious road I 1 program the alti mate ii 1 in for or the government thi th state and he the count counties to construct a ori netted intern A tern of improved improve high in way wit ya that mil 1 I I 1 every ove important renter and that will brov provide 1 the maxi insixi mum of local service a As well ai as form interstate and anti trunk lines of highways the interstate road roads arc are to form connections at state line lines with milAr being con strutted ted in adjoining in thi thin undertaking the federal government Kivon ment hai has cin hated the tho services of tho b lat nt nr incur in skill in the country F v arry or thane I 1 h age of 0 road I 1 1 is being MT mad the subject of mud an I 1 road roads constructed today are far fair superior to thone those laid a few year years congress on oin gress fre hai hall bien liberal in it its appropriation appropriations it i is not quite seven year years since the fed era oral aid system ai as inaugurated and in that time the congress hai has ampro r 0 printed or fo authorized ar appropriation t n totaling about half of thia this ourn hai hits been paid out for work accod 11 ls hed the balance ii is either available for payment for work now in progress pro irrer or will become available aa as new projects are initiated during the fical yean years 1923 1924 and government participation the plan under which this vast road furd ie Is to be expanded expended it is one of cooperation between the federal government trin ment and the states that is e to says ay it Is in basically bail cally a 60 50 50 pro position the th 0 states to furnish half the tao total cost of the broadi to ads and the government the other half hall however in the F pub lie land states an all allowance ii Is made for lands which of course are owned by the government for it its ownership of thee these land lands the govern ment paye pays to the states additional to be applied on road building coats costs in proportion to the amount of public lands within th the several state states utah is one of the large public land states and this elate state receive receives from the government 24 per cent of the total cot cost of federal aid roads a as the public land proportion of the cost tail Is Is in effect a road tax paid on government lands and it Is turned over to the state and applied as part of the fates states 60 50 per cent of road costs this 24 per cent added to the governments 60 cent brings the total government per to 74 and reduces percentage the states a late 2 percentage to 25 only ony one other state in the union gets ge to it larger percentage of help from the federal government and that Is ne no vada where here the proportion of gunpat a in p a to patented lands is larger I 1 A r e 1 I 1 r that state receives federal aid to the total percentage of 87 2258 since the exhaustion of the state road acl bond funds the counties have been ell called upon to supply the amount am aunt necessary to t 0 match federal fe eral aid allotments engineering costs the generous gene rousi help given by government hat has necessary call ins ing into existence thoroughly road department departments in all organized of the states the federal aid plan demand demands that this organization hall shall be efficient and well equipped to handle the immense volume of work incident to the economical expenditure of state and federal fund funds the result is that in utah U ai a in other states the effort ba a bat been b to secure skilled specialists a ato in road mad building work men which has come COMO to be recognized as a separate parate ae and very ve important im U nt branch of f engineering considering g the corn com ively short time since scientific road construction was commenced there has been be en wonderful and each year finds new and improved progress has methods applied to this work one 0 no but to recent compare construe tion with work done five six or seven years ago to be convinced that the outlay for engineering investigation investment and supervision baa has been a profitable in this connection it might be e well to BAY that perhaps the agitation which in the past has been aimed against engineering costs of highway construction has not always been timely or deserved it is not hot meant by this that perfection has been at tallied or that in the past there have dot mot been mistakes on the contrary errors have crept into the work and ana coats costs may at times have been excessive excess S as a result alt what is meant is that wt all of this has hits been incident to the development of the science of road construction no big thing has I 1 ever been brought about without cost ty experimentation and in road build ing be it will doubtless be found on in uch ouch mistakes es as have kavc been nude made have been made iu aulde depots posts to better work in the future so far as utah is concerned the effort hai has been to secure the services of f the best men in every department and engineering t costs ai as well 11 ll ai as other items entering into the th e work are subjected to the closest and joost ost I 1 constant scrutiny if it seems to those who are observers from outside of f the organization that engineering costs goats should be cut it is well to remember that the federal federal bureau of roads demands high efficiency in fn that department and no plans are until the requisite approved has bas been done inasmuch as the government 11 is paying about three fourths of the costs and an 4 bearing lout ring in mind that it has established construction stand ards that bare haye to be attained it will need no argument gumOnt ar to show that the state road commission must maintain its engineering department as ahiah A high ly efficient I 1 organization it is economy todo to do so to use of federal funds fund a it ia t felt that in some quarters there Is a misunderstanding as to the w to be made of federal funds allotted to utah from statements that occasionally are ire made it would seem that wt the idea is prevalent that tola tain definite portions of the fords badong to certain counties count Jes or sections ef of the state this Is a 1 mistake I stake the federal ral funds are allotted to the tat as a whole and they are to be ex under the direction of the state feed PW commission in cooperation with i ow h federal bureau of roads in lacau 41 1 I 1 T L la 12 iata lo 10 I 1 BY HON HENRY if BLOOD member utah state road tie ties and on roads where they will do mot most in furthering the general plan plains of the government emment ov which look looks to the of improved highway highways for central gentral uie use the imato road colmia ion flon makes no allocation of funds to counties count fe or ai as such but initiates project broj pets in III conformity with the tile garif ral scheme the commission aa an at preterit pr bent organized make makes no dl di vision of the bite state but attempt attempts to to adm I 1 n I 1 ate r ita its affair affairs with duo due regard for tho the interests of all ell concerned federal aid roads utah hai has A total road mileage of 2107 mile miles of thi this total 31 18 5 are state roads the balance coming corning under the head of county road roads the ff deral law approved nov v 0 9 1921 1021 limit limits government aid to 7 per cent of the total road mileage or mile miles this mileage la ix divided into primary and secondary condary ic road roads the mary to be interstate highway highways and the secondary econ dary road roads with no difference in the construction standards tan dard on the two classes of roads it will thu thus be seen that federal aid can be applied on 1 if only about half the total state road roa d mileage the fed year 1009 1909 1912 1913 1914 1916 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 4 1920 1921 1922 to total ale while there ie is no doubt that hard surfaced roads are desirable and even necessary where a density of traffic warrants arrants W that type of construction it is believed that the th 11 greatest economy will result from the construction of standard gravel surfaced road in time a mil mile of hard road is laid it means that somewhere in the state there are three miles unimproved road that with the same expenditure might have been brought up to standard as to drainage grid grind ing and surfacing if the gravel a BUT faced type had been adopted it doe does not necessarily follow that the districts which are given standard gravel surfaced roads are at to be forever barred from the benefit benefits of the higher type of construction As a matter of fact the two stage method of construction is recognize rec ed as being economical and in general advisable by two to altage construction Is meant the building of a grave gravel surfaced road adt provided with proper drainage and d structure truc tures as a first stage this road to be used until such ume as traffic conditions demand a hard bard surfaced highway when that time ar at rives the structures and drainage the grading trading and gravel base can all be used with little or no loss in the construction of the higher type t of road this plan of road building bully d ing is being followed in some of the most progressive asire states of the union even where funds are more abundant than they are in utah moreover this is in line with what we vre ined in railroad building un g for instance when whet the denver lj 6 rio grande railroad was built into utah it t wax a narrow gauge rut e line lint using Us light rails and small i and cheap equipment q ament As briness busi nesa was de do and income increased it was wall changed from the lower type to the higher type of railroad construction cot no truc tion with heavier rails standard gauge and with standard stan daid equipment how now 0 1 1 l pral era bureau B ur on u of road roads ha ina jut just re to centi cantly y approved roved the state designs tion 0 of f aff 1430 30 mile I 1 on the 7 per cent system these r broadi 0 ads traverse tra verte mot most populous po pulou actions of the state and when improved will serve coun ties having about 95 per cint of the th population up to the prent sent time about 22 per cent of the th e primary and ne condary systems hai has b been een constructed andor standard tan dard in addition it to 0 thin this t there hpe to are now under con construe conat tion 80 mild miles of gravel surfaced iced roads and 15 18 8 mile miles of concrete paving and eight bridges with a total cost of 1120 the 1923 program in elude eludes miles of traveled graveled rost aa 14 and 19 miles of hard surfaced lur faced pave ment in addition to the mileage now under construction the cot cost of the traveled graveled reads roads will be about 1136 and of the hard surfaced eur faced roads GOO proposed for co centime tion in 1024 and 1925 will involve the expenditure of 1928 A As a matter of beneral ire information the following tabulation of road ex pend iture is given covering the period since the organization org of the tate state road commission in 1909 total expended total for MaInton enee for to r construe construction tion not segregated e related not segregated 86 55 41 76 59 1 65 41 80 02 58 03 go 66 71 08 of head road utah has constructed a very ex x te tenille daivs mileage of hard surfaced roads and the demand for a continuation of thil this rt policy llcy has in some set eions been quite qu insistent inai tent it haa has been found however that t at tho the allotment of federal funds fund ia i ao to limited a as to make it impossible to meet all of the requirements for this his t expensive type localities where the traffic is not so great in general it may be eald hat four miles of gravel surfaced lur faced highways can be built under government specifications for the same coit cost as its one mile of the best type of hard surfaced highway assuming that concrete highway will cost SO 30 pr per mile and and the gravel surfaced highway per mile inclusive of drainage and structures in each etch instance and assuming further that money for road construction truc tion can be had at 6 atle it will be seen that the spent on each mile of the hard surfaced road in excess of the cost of the gran gravel surfaced highway calls for an interest expenditure annually of 1125 if we assume that the annual maintenance cost of a gravel surfaced road Is 00 per mile and that of a hard surfaced road 00 per mile there would be a saving in favor of the hard surfaced road of 00 per milo mile per year which would leave a net excess cost coat to the public of 1000 per mile per year for the hard surfaced highway so far its a experience has shown in fn this state and it mutt must be admitted that we have not had either type of road in use ion long enough to reach definite conclusions it would appear that a well constructed gravel surfaced road where the patrol system of main feriance teri ance is in operation will stand up under ordinary traffic in a very satisfactory is ls manner in n a a state to such as utah 11 with VI extensive outlying u ing districts tri where he roads do are a urgently ebuy needed e it I 1 would woul see seem to be 0 a correct to policy to build a greater a r mileage of I 1 gravel surfaced ou ace roads d rather er than a curtailed mileage eat of 0 hard surfaced highways in order to reach more of the people total tor for construction and 90 65 21 60 69 79 of highway it might be interesting to indicate what other tales states are do ing in this respect A consideration of comparative road mileage will how show that in utah the policy polky of bull diric hard surfaced ur faced highway highways has been car ried tied further than in any Y other ther inter mountain state the following tabu lation will prove of interest in terest in this connection data on proposed 7 71 system a as of december 20 1922 leral r alln mil wilema total 1 por cent of it Illi illicy hy y P mil M alil ile lower mileage colorado aird macadam cyp types idaho 72 1941 montana 2814 2772 62 1587 nevada 26 11 new mexico 2000 1540 1520 34 utah 25 wyoming 1684 1656 1655 16 many eara ears it would have been coal fields in carbon would have been opened up had promoters insisted on the increased expenditure that would have been nee essary to have laid and equipped a standard gauge road at first is a matter of conjecture but it is safe to say that by using the two stage construction in this one railroad venture the coal industry of utah was developed many man years earlier than otherwise would woul I 1 have been possible the single track railroad is considered si dered the proper thing until the traffic traffie becomes of such density that dou ble tracking is justified when the additional expenditure is made the applying this thin same reasoning reason ull to road building program in utah is it would by seem the state that road r the d policy ra commission proposed P 1 0 o n Is justified by the traffic conditions co editions that exist this does not mean me it that no further hard surfaced Bur fAced road will be laid in this state it will be necessary and desirable to complete links in the chain of hard surfaced highways notably the one between payson and the juab county line and at the riverdale rivendale Ri verdale crossing there may be other sections where the traffic demands the higher type of road but in general it is felt that conditions in the state demand that greater road mileage be constructed with the somewhat limited amount of federal aid funds available at this time leaving to the future the second stage of the construe tion the hard bard surfaced road the wendover no talk on roads in utah would be complete COM PIetO without some mention being made of the wendover road which has just recently been approved ap roved for fed eral ral aid by the hon 9 henry enry C wal lace ace secretary of agriculture after me one of the th most bitter |