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Show UTAH HAS BIG ROAD PROGRAM I Thirteen Years Required for Completion at Present Rate rj fch'a fcderal-stats highway system n? tentatively outlined by the ?t:it hiphway commission can be completed complet-ed in 13 years if the present proDortlon of federal aid Ls cjven fur highu.nys along with th same amount of Pinto ' funds. Buch ws. a statement by B j j Finch, district engineer of the Bur-eatl Bur-eatl of Public lloads, in an addr.-s.s at ;he igfleu Rotar. club meeting this noon in the Weber lull rooma The total cost of the hlghvn system, he estlblshed, would he 14,s00,000, giving n total uf 1960 niil3 of federnl-state federnl-state highway If this 140 miles ha ir.-!, i urn pl' t i. it.: '"I rf.i 1 '1 ' ' U concrete or asphalt, 160 miles more Will onl need surfacing and 13S0 miles must he entirelv built. MI E3T1NG MOBTDAV Presidi at 10 S. Hinckley of the club )reside( at the moetlnK President "red (J. T;ilor of the ogilri chamber of commerce urged Rotarlans to attend at-tend the tr( general meeting of the chamber of commerce to be held next Monda evening rinn for the rr-tary rr-tary birthday celebration were brought before the club by Frank M. I u Ikks ogden's delegation lo the district convention con-vention at Mlttsoula. Mont., in the latter lat-ter part of March ia now under consideration, con-sideration, announcement of the date li'lnK made today Ogden is also he-Inp he-Inp urged to send a ' large delegation to ihe International convention this summer in Los Aneic FUNDS HJjOTTED The address by District Engineer Finch followa. In full Tu accordance with a recent act of congress, the state highway department depart-ment of Utah h:s designated a proposed pro-posed system of highways upon which all federal aid shall be expanded. It: may be of interest to see what federal aid has done and may yet do for the roads of I'tah. Under previous ais nf congress there was a total of $3,117,000 allotted to the state for construction of so-called so-called Post Roads. From thN xtnoun' there h-js hecn rxp'nded approximately approximate-ly $1,054.0011 in constructing about 260 miles of road, leaving 2.063.000 for future work. Under the recen' act there was allotted $S49 f99 addl- llni.-.l (Vine mnlliitr a tr. .1 ,. 4 'I 'ti'.i. .1 ooo. fS, 912. 000 of which Is available fur ruture expenditure. i A PKNDm Rl LIMT1 I l The former acts did not provide fo-limiting fo-limiting the expenditure to a definite system. In fact, tho original act required re-quired that the expenditure he on roads ' oer which mails were carried. As the j more important roads In the state parallel the railroads n which the I mails were carrleil they were not Post Roads and so could n't be built with I federal funds. The expe nditure was therefore limited tn roads of lessor ! Importance but over which the malls ; were carried. Later amendments re-I re-I mover this restriction until we now have the more Important roads gien precedence In construclion- Previous I to this time, however, work had been done on about 170 miles or which do not become a part of tho system as tentatively laid out by the state highway high-way department Ahout 80 miles of work has been done on roads which Us nil the proposed system. f this SO miles. 17 miles have n hlRh type or surf ie Tii 1 1 1 :i i n i ; of ihe mileage has been graded ready for surfacing. The system as proposed by the state highway department comprises a total to-tal of 1660. mile. ( f this about 140 miles has been surfaced with concroto or asphalt and it is likely that about lfii) miles more will need surface. This loac 1,350 miles on which a cheaper type of road will be satisfactory for some years to come. RAT : PER vi r. What dues this ineai in terms of money and tlinev Suppose that the 160 miles of road will eos( J25.00U per mile ami the remaining 1.35u miles 10 ooo per mile, the total cost of completing such a rystom would be J14.8O0.000. An annual appropriation of ?7".,000,000 per year for F. deral Aid would give the State of Vtah ahout $85,000 each year. This with the funds which the state must raise lo match the federal funds would give a total for each year of $1,140,000 for construction of new roads. At this rate it would lake about 13 vears to complete such a system The cost to the state for construction would be about $300,000 per year This system sys-tem of roads must be maintained both before and after construction. Allowing Allow-ing $200 per mile for maintenance of the 1,650 miles of roads In the sstem. we would have nn annual maintenance COSl of 1380,000 The total cost per year to the state would be the sum of the construction, maintenance ami overhead costs, approximately $700,000 per year. The state board of equalisation equalisa-tion has prepared a statement showing that In lL'l there was raised hy taxation taxa-tion in the state $2,608,087 for road purposes, so that the program outlined above would use annually only about one-tblrd the amount now raised for road purposes, leaving the other two-thirds two-thirds for maintenance and construction construc-tion of roads not on the system RESUIT6 OBTAINED At the end of the thirteen year period per-iod we would have a system of 1.050 miles of completed toad which would serve at least 90 per cent of the population popu-lation of Ihe stute This would bo accomplished ac-complished without additional bond issues nnd without Increasing the tax hurd n In tact, by a proper organization organiza-tion of the work it in probable that tho tax rate for road purposes could be materially decreased. The program outlined above has one r.ialn condition upon which the whole is based; that is the continuance of federal aid In road building. Measures now before congress propose an annual appropriation of $ 100,000 OOu per jear for five years, although there is some indication that this appropriation will be cut to $75,000,000 per year This lat figure Is the one used in the abore program o that we may say that If Federal aid Is continued we can expect to have a system o state and interstate inter-state roads completed within a rea-BOnable rea-BOnable time and maintained both bo-fore bo-fore and after completion This system sys-tem would serve ail classes of traffic lo the extent that 90 per cent of the travel Would be on roads passable 3(6 dajs in (he vear. P9ROSPJ OT8 OF FUTURE It must be remembered that the program outlined above Is not based upon definite estimates, but rather on an assumed cost per mile for construe Hon The period of 13 years may seem longer lhan necessary, but Is obtained IS I result of considering an allotment of $849,000 per year which, under the program recentlv adopted hv ihe slafe highway departmem. would represent about 74 per cent of the fund available avail-able for construction of roads on the system. An increase In the federal appropriation or an increase in the funda by the state would shorten the period of construction and a decrease in either of fheso funds would ienKth-en ienKth-en the period. Jt may also be found that in a period of ten years travel may so increase that roads whloh now would seem to bi satisfactory as gravel roads inav need reconstruction with a butter surface All these contingencies would chance the result obtained, but we may still say that If wo are to provide proper transportation within and through the state, every effort must bo made to continue the funds available for such work and to expend these funds in the most economical manner possible. |