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Show GREAT ROAD BUILDING YEAR Thousands of Miles of Improvement Arranged and More Will Surely Follow. From the passage of the federal aid road act to December 15, 1918,. 705 projects were approved by tha secretary of agriculture. These projects involve the improvement of 7,867 miles of public roads at a total estimated cost of $57,032,000, of which the federal government has been re-quested re-quested to contribute $21,602,000. There have been actually completed to date twelve projects, involving a total of fifty-one miles of road, costing cost-ing approximately $017,548, and oa which federal aid in the amount of $200,G00.19 was paid. Altogether there are more than 7,500 miles of road, for which most of the steps preliminary to construction construc-tion have been taken so far as the bureau of public roads is concerned. Numerous other projects not yet reported re-ported to the department have been, completed or are under construction, so that the. sum total of the road work now in progress under federal aid is greater than appears in this summary. From Florida to Maine, through the North to the Pacific coast and down to Mexico road building work Is going go-ing on. Every state has accepted its contribution from the government and while no organized effort has been made along those lines to th& present time, the states are working gradually to the system of national highways. Coupled with plans already outlined out-lined for expenditures on the roads, is the legislative program now before congress, which provides for $500,-000,000 $500,-000,000 to tie expended over a period of seven years by federal aid. It is estimated that in the event of the-passage the-passage of this bill, which would v : ; ' , ? Well-Drained Road. make available Immediately $75,000,-000 $75,000,-000 for use in federal aid, It would be possible for the government and the states to build 34,000 miles of highways this year If labor could be-obtained. |