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Show . 4: 1 Auto Repairs Cost is Much Greater Than Road Upkeep Loss Due to Poor Highway Surfaces in the Country Would Pay the Bills for Good Ones. That the sums spent on motor vehicle ve-hicle repairs Is vastly greater than the Hiinif spent on highway paving is the sintement of Prof. W. K. Hatt. recently ippolntec director of the advisory board on highways research. Division ! ',1 Engineering. National Research Oouncl' i '-There are $10,000,000,000 Invested in self-propelled vehicles In the United Slates and Canada," says Prof. Iatl "and tho turnover is more that. S3.000.000.000 annually." To this phould be added gasoline, oil and ga rage costs, which would bring th. ntal to approximately S5. 000.000. 000 i Approximate figures available Indi cate thai the annual expendlturf,p,l ' the automobiles and trucks hat rur I over the roads lr ton times aiargo as the amount of money spent ch year t Jon the country roads thnselvea, st-; st-; Prof. Hatt and his commute believe pr i that the facts affecting thcost of 01 ; vehicle operation due to roadurfacea fQ must be emphasized and th future st . must bring Intensive researclfor the m 'purpose of extending the lifof the nr j roads through proper construon and st maintenance. sfi In the early days of mote traffic sti practically all automobiles ha pneu- nc matlo tires When run at hit speed wi the wheels disperse? tho rk-dust lei binder of the macadam road a! scat. tl tered the stone. A more tonlcvroi-binding tonlcvroi-binding material was concedod to be the remedy. Then came tr j large mo. lor truck running on solid tires and Imposing a weight of many tons. Thus a new problem arose how to prevent crushing and abrasion of road surfaces when subjeoted to the tmpaot of thee solid tired, heavily loaded trucks. The only thing to do was to put the shock absorbing principle of the Inflated automobile au-tomobile tire Into the surface of th road, thus easing strain on the road foundation, the road surface and the vehicle. Had it been suggested ten or fiftoen years ago that rural taxpayers resort to city types of asphalt paving It would have seemed a preposterous proposition, but with present expenditures expendi-tures for Important ' country roads ranging from $30,000 to $40,000 mils Is not surprising lhat engineers tould study the subject from the' I actlcal and common sense premise j j actual and economic achievement. According to J. E. Pennybacker. I rmer chief economist for the United i '. .ates Bureau of Publlo Koada, deter- . inalfon of justifiable outlay for the j -oposed Improvement of roads and l reels from anticipated service, tould cull for at leuwl as careful a irvey and estimate as the engineer i iw provides for the construction ' t 3rk Hself. This method, he says, I ... ives to the engineer the same dlBcre-1 ' in as he now customarily exereises ,n-liwtt,-.uft'uf uva.Hr. uui buujL-cit, n to the tesl of financial Justification The saving in cost of traffic operutlni per tone mile, determined by caret u. Investigation, when applied to the iota, existing and potential Increase In ton miles, according to M-. Pennybacker will give the gross annual saving 1: traffic operation attributable to ihs un provemenl of the roftd. Investigation shows lhat during th. years 1916 to 19S0 the price of bttunu nous paving materials Increased onl 65 per cent., while highway labor I. creased 150 per cent, and the price . i other road-building materials roBe tri j 90 to 150 per cent. Costs of both liil and materials are now on the decli however, and Ihero Is a strong reuet. , In favor of reduced freight rates . , j of this, of course, means cbean highways. |