Show ROAD syster MIS state divided into four district with K C wright in charge of the first district announcement has been made tha commencing today or in the very near future the state road commission will take over maintenance of the entire state road system E C knowlton who lias has been assistant chief engineer 0 of the commission will become maintenance engineer and responsible under howard C means chief engineer for the success ot of the maintenance work throughout the state on the 0 miles ot of highway designated as state highways hitherto the state road agents in each ot of the twenty nine counties ot of utah has been the backbone ot of the maintenance system on state roads these officials were appointed jointly by the state road commission and the county commissioners for the past two years tho the counties furnished one halt half the main tence expenses ot of til th state road system detore defore that time all the maintenance money came from the counties the counties have assumed wide jurisdiction over the activities of the state road agent with the increase in the gasoline sales tax from 2 to sa cents a gallon the legislature virtually pledged the state road commission to take over the maintenance of 0 the state road system this the state proposes to do the calendar year will in the future be the maintenance year except ce f that december de cember 1925 Is added to the maintenance year ot of 1926 antii this year the states fiscal year has ended december 1 cooperation of the county commissioners will still be sought it will be necessary tor for practically all betterment work as distinct from maintenance on the state road system and also tor for all construction work As concerns maintenance ot of the state road system so tar far as now car can be foreseen the function ot of the county commission will be largely advisory claims and vouchers lor for maintenance will hereafter be signed by the district engineer rather than by the county commissioners the state road agent in each county it was explained by mr knowlton yesterday has in the past lived at a definite headquarters headquarter generally the county seat these men have traveled to and from their various maintenance units in their own cars at the expense of the state road fund As a general thing they have spent much of their time traveling from place to place or else in their offices taking care of payrolls bills and other routine work their work has been largely supervisory in character in most cases their actual producing forces have been small and this has resulted in a proportionately large oie overhead expense I the detailed organization in e each h lof of the new districts will be larg largely acy based on the gang patrol system th this has las been tentatively worked out modifications to suit special conditions may be expected the more important roads of 0 the system will have larger gangs on the smaller or feeder roads the unit patrol may be used consisting of a man anti and team or a man and a one man grader or truck As to the larger gangs mr knowlton has thus outlined he work there would be organized on oil given stretches of road varying in length from fifty to miles a permanent gang under a gang patrol foreman the size of these patrols and the equipment Is governed by location of adaptable headquarters and geographical and other conditions this gan gang g on roads rot ilot hard surfaced in in the spring and late fall world would spread out over the entire patrol tor for dragging purposes during the long dry summer r it would be kept intact tor for hauling additional gravel on the road surface a duty which is ia really the foundation of gravel road maintenance in winter the foreman and a part of the gang would be employed in truck and machinery repair snow removal and other duties on hard surfaced roads the truck part of the gangs would be employed during working season making real gravel shoulders on the paved roads which are so sorely needed the tha laborers and ane one truck would work at pavement patching the mala truck gang would also at times haul patching material |