Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1916 — GOOD ROADS [ARTICLE]

GOOD ROADS

It is estimated that concrete roads cost $15,000 a mile and involve SSO a mile upkeep. Combined statistics of the road experience of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Xew Jersey and New York for eight years show an average cost a mile of S6OB a year for upkeep for roads built of material other than concrete. The difference in upkeep, $558 if capitalized at 5 per cent, gives a principal sum of $11,160 as the differential capital advantage for the saving in upkeep. Should the move ment to construct permanent roads gain headway, a vast volume of road bonds would come on the market, and on account of the great agricultural savings effected by good roads over and above the saving in upkeep, such securities should form an excellent class of investment, provided the funds are properly expended. It is important only that

methods of permanent construction shall be followed. Vermilion county, Illinois, has just accepted bids for 141 miles of concrete highway to cost upward o f $1,500,000. Spread over 20 years and over the acres benefited and on the basis of $30.G3 value of land an acre, the total cost to the farmer is estimated at 8 3-4 cents an acre a year, which is a negligible figure. Cuyahoga county, Ohio, has upward of 1,000 miles of such roadway/ r To attempt to express a transition to permanent roads into pounds of cement to be used and into cubic yards of trap rock to be crushed, considering the vast mileage which could be advantageously constructed from the economic standpoint of money actually saved, would require figures or rather methods of expressing figures such as astronomers use in measuring the orbits of the planets. The cement and trap rock industries undoubtedly would enter upon a development which during the next five years will astound those who have not considered the present situation.—Wall Street Journal.