Show OAD PROVED IMPROVED HIGHWAYS HELP GOPHER STATE seven thousand miles of 0 open road raid make up the state highway system of minnesota and an average mile of gravel roadbed on one ot of the main state routes last year cost exactly in maintenance and repair that excessive maintenance charge on the heavily used trunk lines where gravel Is the major type of surfacing coupled with the lack of immediate funds for a statewide state wide paving program forms the chief objection to a working plan that has made minnesota one of the most popular touring and motor transportation states in the union according to members of the stute highway commission roads of this northwest empire have been forcibly dragged from the mud through the use of the states natural gravel resources and the genius and determination of commissioner 0 31 babcock rather than through the application of modern highway financing methods say students of the national road plans braf fie has been served for the most part by local road levies which swell the tax tar burden on minnesota land and by a sort of halfway bond issue which gives the counties the initiative in issuing bonds which state funds are slow paying off about of such county bonds have been issued and the counties which took the good roads step are now being reimbursed from lice license nae fee funds another issue of Is now up to the state legislature and sentiment all over the state seems to promise it success this year if the issue passes the highway y department part ment Is prepared to clear away the worst of existing highway barriers in a single gesture and gallop into a construction st campaign which will set act new standards in wider terminal roads and modern paving improvements tor for the country it Is possible that no I 1 trunk line the main traffic road running from st paul all the way north to duluth will be closed from end to engfor end for construction as the result of the promised bond issue and till all traffic detoured during the construction work this road Is the most expensive of the states st t gravel arteries it carried a huge freight and passenger tonnage dally daily and is one of the primary tourist routes in the fishing and hunting seasons at present the iron range counties and sparsely settled districts to the north may be credited with the states paving championship like the isolated north counties in wisconsin and michigan these communities were first to grasp the importance of modern road improvements As a result hundreds of miles of concrete pavements loop their way from duluth through the Dor northern corthern thern lake country other pavements now center about the twin cities one of the longest continuous stretches running from minneapolis to st cloud on the north it Is possible this year to drive from duluth along the northern shores of lake superior clear to pigeon river on a good gravel road another good automobile road runs from grand marais to hungry jack lake and a new road Is going in to gunflint lake on the far north I 1 |