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Show Patrols Make Maryland Roads Quite Efficient Maryland, which has one of the best road systems in the United States, has consistently followed the plan of taking tak-ing poor roads and building them up by gradual steps and by careful and adequate maintenance rather than by building the most expensive type and letting it deteriorate for lack of proper care. The first Improved roads In Maryland Mary-land were comparatively inexpensive, costing only what the taxpayers were willing to pay, the first few years the cost being less than $10,000 per mile. In some places the work entailed considerable con-siderable grading and drainage, but in others it amounted simply to resurfacing resur-facing the old turnpikes, which had already been graded and drained. Generally the roads built at that time were macadam, 12 feet wide and six Inches thick. Soon the width was increased to 14 and later some were made still wider, some very successfully, success-fully, by adding concrete shoulders on each side of the macadam. The macadam roads In Maryland have given good satisfaction, but continuous con-tinuous care has largely been responsible respon-sible for their success. The roads are constantly patrolled and no hole of any size is allowed to go unrepaired. Material for patching is kept at convenient con-venient points for the use of the patrolmen. pa-trolmen. From a relatively small Investment In-vestment In admittedly low-type road It builds up a better one from year to year, always conserving the bulk of the previous investment. |