Show maintenance OF DIRT ROADS illinois state highway department makes comments that partly answer oft repeated question all through the contra central states there seems to be at present an unexpected Inte interest rost in earth roads and there Is a end desire to have an author aut liori dative opinion on the field for which aich such roads are it e adapted it Is a sub feet act on which many experienced road t engineers n finvers are not willing to rn make ike an any statements tta terni ants for fear or of being misunderstood der stood or misquoted but the road eng engineer gincer of the illinois state highway department has recently made some balade arom ad f plan for king road drag comments that answer a part ot of this off repeated question as follows the earth road cannot by any system of maintenance be kept up throughout the entire year to the usual standard of the other types the use of the road in a wet vet and softened condition Is ig what causes the trouble under the conditions where the earth road Is it a suitable type its ita total cost for construction st and maintenance is less than that of any other type in dry weather and alien hen it is not too dusty the prop erly constructed and maintained earth road is by far more pleasant and more satisfactory to travel upon than any other boad with neglected maintenance tM te nance alice however no other tape ol 01 road broad can go to pieces and become ira im passable so quickly as an earth roal road wor kor on the other hand can any other type be brought to a satisfactory condition for travel so quickly and so cheaply after having been impassable from r rom these peculiar features it wilt wili he be noted that practically the entire problem with aith earth roads Is their proper drainage and systematic maintenance te nance the opportunity for bettering our road conditions by properly improving the earth roads Is almost beyond our imagination |