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Show CITIES BUILDING GOOD PAVEMENTS i i A census of city paving, begun Jan- uary 1, and just completed by the j American City Magazine, shows a total of 839,000,000 square yards of paved street In the 1,009 leading cities of the United States. This yardage Is equivalent to S4.000 miles of "roadway 18 feet wide enough to span the country from coast j to coast 28 times and accommodate two continuous lines of motor traffic moving in opposite directions and each containing 44,520,000 vehicles. The mileage of the paved streets, as shown by the census, is equal to one-third the total steam and electric elec-tric railroad mileage of the country and 57 per cent of the total mileage in the federal-aid highway system. It is 27,000 miles more than the mileage of the. latter system thus far Improved with federal-aid funds and is equal to one thirty-fifth of the total to-tal road mileage of the United States. Results of the census, therefore, indicate in-dicate that street paving in the cities Is more than keeping pace with the improvement im-provement of the rural highways, a fact not generally appreciated. New York city, from 1920 to 1026, added 6,706,000 yards of pavement to her streets, thereby raising the total from 41,375,000 square yards In 1920 to 48,082,000 square yards in 1926. Chicago, from 1920 to 1926, showed a gain in paved streets of only 689,670 square yards, but in the same period that city raised the standard of paving pav-ing much higher. Chicago's total paved streets in 1920 were 38,430,330 square yards in area while in 1926 the total was 39,120,000 square yards. Philadelphia had a conspicuous gain of 2,932,000 square yards In the 1920 to 1926 period. Philadelphia's total paved streets in 1920 were 22,-609,962 22,-609,962 square yards in area, while in 1926 the total was 25,541,663 square yards. |