Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1917 — Keeping Good Roads Good. [ARTICLE]

Keeping Good Roads Good.

Keeping good roads good is the most important task in . connection with an improved highway system, once the construction work is completed. In the United States in the past this task has j?een negelected, the improved roads in many instances being allowed to . deteriorate until they became almost impassable, when they were, at heavy cost, rebuilt. That states and counties are now coming to recognize the need of care-' fill and thoroughgoing maintenance, however, is indicated by studies of county road systems in different sections of the country recently made by the office of public roads and rural engineering of the department. While some of the eight counties in which intensive studies were made were found to have no provisions for maintenance and others were found to pay for upkeep of the roads out of bond-issue funds, thus creating a debt that would outlive the temporary improvement by two counties in widely separated states were found in which -maintenance conditions were practically all that could be desired. In Mississippi, it was found, there is a state law requiring, that a special annual tax -of at least 1 mill shall be levied for the upkeep of all roads constructed by means of bond issues, the fund to be kept from all other funds and to be used for maintenance only. Instead of the deterioration taking , place on the roads of some of the counties in other states on which examinations were made, it was found that in Lauderdale county, Mississippi, roads built several years ago and maintained from the special fund have actually improved since their completion.