Show million price of bringing utah highways up to standard utah has the coap company an of ri most t of its sister states in in tz the union in facing demands for large scale highway improvement it is pointed out in a utah foundation study released today quoting the U S bureau of public roads the report indicates that less than one fifth of the nations asoo miles of major interstate highways now meet minimum standards for traffic with other primary and ic secondary condary roads likewise deficient cost of bringing state roads up to minimum standards is now estimated by the utah state road oa commission to he be million ion if suc such an improvement program were unde undertaken ken over a afif teen year period more than W 1511 million would be required annually for road construction alone total expenditure for maintenance construction st and administration of state highways for the entire period since has been 1 1 the utah foundation study indicates utah spent 10 vi ya million on state highways in fiscal 1949 of which 6 million was for or construction the utah foundation study points out that proposals for new construction to meet specified minimum standards really involve a vastly superior and much more costly kind of road building than was carried can led out for traffic of earlier years today for example minimum minimum standards prescribed by the US bureau of public roads for a road iad through parleys canyon require a highway of four twelve foot wide lanes separated by a neutral zone four feet wide with four foot surfaced shoulders on each side designed to carry speeds up to 35 3 miles per hour and weight loads up to pounds legal limit with a maximum curvature of seven degrees and with rigid controls on access roads overpass over pass or underpass under pass separations are required for all railroad crossings with two or more tracks regardless of traffic flow on all interstate highways al minimum sight distance for the parleys 1 canyon road is set at feet and maximum grade at six per cent on the other hand in 1930 a two lane surfaced highway eighteen feet wide designed for light loads and speeds up to 35 3 miles per hour with sharp qui quives curves ves steep grades limit limited e d sight distance grade crossings and unlimited access from side roads was considered satisfactory for mainline main line highways construction st of such a road involved only a fraction of the outlay which would now be considered essential for a new road serving the same area even if labor and material cost increases are disregarded foundation analysts note that while there is general agreement on the desirability of good roads there is wide disagreement as to who should pay how much of the bill and which roads should be improved first citing findings of a series of hearings in oregon it is reported that city dwellers place a high priority on city streets with a strong interest in state highways highway with county roads a poor third farm organizations want rural farm to market roads improved first county residents place high priority on county roads with little interest in city streets highway user groups were found to be enthusiastic about highway improvement but cool toward proposals for higher motor vehicle taxation the utah foundation study reviews maintenance and construction expenditures for 1919 1949 in utah noting that more than half the total highway outlay since january 1910 1916 has gone for maintenance bills snow removal expenditures last winter exceeded a million dollars a record high and triple the requirement of the previous year nearly 5 million was spent for new construction projects on miles of state highways the major single project was the 58 miles of concrete highway built nor north th of bountiful to carry northbound north bound traffic on U S 01 this stretch was built at a cost of or per mile the concrete construction cost for the two 12 foot lanes with 14 feet of shoulders was 92 0 per mile not including right of way or removal of railroad tracks to a new location this compares with a computed cost based on 1940 charges of per mile for identical construction the utah foundation study reports total highway personnel was lower in the months of july august september and october of 1949 compared with the same months of 1948 1261 compared with 1201 in 1949 1940 principal reduction was in administrative personnel which was reduced from to while district office and maintenance crew personnel increased from to the major criticism of utah highway administration continues to center about the form of organization the report states with three full time commissioners and a chief highway engineer all paid per year the division of administrative responsibility and the ceiling placed upon salaries for engineering personnel resulting from the rule that subordinates may not be paid more than the statutory salary specified ci fied for commissioners ners are cited as major obstacles to effective highway planning and administration the utah foundation analysts criticize the absence of regular physical inventory checks of road ma material t erial stocks to verify accounting records |