Show I 1 BETTER J ROADS i FACTORS AFFECT NO GRADING labor costs character of soil sail graded and time limit on contracts contract all counted arr prepared by 17 the united states department of 0 agriculture A great geat g eat variation in the conditions under a grading for agli highways v Y Is 18 done lu different sections ot of the united states Is reflected in cost data compiled by the bureau of public roads united states department ot of agriculture on 1350 1350 miles of federal ald aid road the figures cover the four year period 1917 1021 and are based on a total of 2 ards of earth for the groups of states the average price per cubic yard Is as follows new england and middle atlantic states east north central west north central 0 atlantic ea east it south gentral central west south central 0 08 mountain and pacific states the general average price was probably the most important factor affecting the cost was the amount of grading to be done per mite mile the quantity being very small in the groups having the highest prices in general it Is noticed that chere ft here mostly old roads are rebuilt the light work and tearing up the old pavement greatly affected the cost the amount of line fine grading or trimming required for the higher types of pavement was also a factor labor costs character of soil to be graded conditions time limit on contracts and cost vt of detours for traffic also affected the cost while each group grou of states did not have the same volume of grading each year and therefore the average figure tor for the whole country Is not truly representative it Is Interest interesting lag to note that the average coot of fit grading grad tk k A t concrete road designed to take care of great geat deal more than local traffic daily rose from in the lie first quarter of 1917 to 0 87 in the fourth quarter of 1919 and then gradually declined to in the third quarter of 1921 it Is probable that the latter figure would be somewhat higher ha had d all of the states let work in that quarter |