SPECIAL ECONOMY IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

(ADDRESS BY FRANK D. LYON, SPECIAL EXAMINER OF HIGHWAYS, STATE OF NEW YORK, AT GOOD ROADS CONVENTION, HELD IN ALBANY, JANUARY 26 AND 27, 1904.)

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention.-I desire to call your attention to the fact that in the minds of many the real meaning and intention of the Higbie-Armstrong law is misunderstood. A Higbie-Armstrong road may be constructed at a cost of possibly as low as $1,800 per mile and the cost varying in accordance with the value of the material and the cost of labor. It has been the rule that those petitions which have been filed in the State Engineer's office are presented by the various supervisors for those roads which the town authorities have been unable to keep in a passable condition; roads that have been carrying extraordinarily heavy traffic and which have been impassable, particularly in the spring and fall.

It has always been the practice of the department in locating an improved road and in formulating the plans as to material to be used to carry out the wishes of the authorities so far as possible and practicable in the towns or counties in which the road is to be constructed. Dirt roads, gravel roads and shale roads have been built, and while they have been satisfactory in the main, yet after practical experience and a test the tendency is to change and adopt materials for construction which are more expensive and which seem to give better satisfaction on account of durability.

I therefore desire to call your attention to State Engineer Bond's report to the Legislature for the years 1899 and 1900, as follows:

"AIM IN ROAD BUILDING.

"In road building the main object is to get the greatest length of the best road for the least money.

"The best road will have the location which will give the best drainage and the easiest grade and will serve the most traffic. The best road will have the design and construction which will

give a perfectly drained bed of dry earth supporting a smooth and water-tight surface.

"This will enable it to shed water with least delay; to endure frost with least change; to carry traffic with least wear; to carry heaviest loads with least effort; to carry light loads speedily with least jolt.

"The best construction of a road can only be obtained under skillful supervision, by correct formation of the drains and of the roadbed, and by the careful selection of proper materials and close and constant attention to the manner in which these materials are prepared, placed and consolidated.

County authorities can have stone and materials for road building tested by the State Engineer's Department free of expense instead of building roads and finding too late that the material was unfit.

"PRISON LABOR.

"The principal formation of trap-rock exists in Rockland county, just across the Hudson river from Sing Sing prison, where a large number of convicts are confined in idleness, which is injurious to them and expensive to the State. It would seem practicable that the State should open a quarry in the trap-rock formation near Sing Sing at a point back from the river where the picturesque features of the Palisades should in no wise be affected by it, and should equip this quarry with stone-crushing machinery.

"The convicts could here be confined as securely as in Sing Sing and the crushed rock delivered at the wharf on the Hudson river at about one-third the price now charged by private quarries along the Hudson river in New Jersey.

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"For such localities as could only be reached by railroad transportation, special freight rates could doubtless be arranged with railroad companies, since railroads profit directly by the improvement in highways, all of which are direct tributaries to the railroads and bring to them business which is created by the existence of good highways. * * *

"The counties wishing to reduce the cost of improving their highways can employ upon the work of drainage and of grad

ing, the prisoners confined in idleness in the county jails, which are now sought by the criminal classes as a welcome retreat where they can be cared for at the cost of the taxpayers; 1,500 men are thus confined, many of whom can be usefully employed in improving the highways.

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"IMPROVED ROADS WHICH ARE NOT MACADAM ROADS.

"Some counties can afford to pay one-half of the cost of the first-class crushed rock roads which are built by state aid at $7,000 to $9,000 per mile, but many other counties want improved roads which are neither so good nor so costly as the macadam roads.

"The provisions of the Higbie-Armstrong law are such that the State Engineer is enabled to select for the improvement of any highway a Telford, macadam or gravel roadway, or other suitable construction, taking into consideration the climate, soil and materials to be had in that vicinity and the extent and nature of the traffic likely to be upon the highway, specifying in his judgment the kind of road which a wise economy de

"The existing roadway will be properly cleared of sod and stones, and properly graded with ditches and culverts necessary for perfect drainage and the natural material forming the present road will be properly formed and crowned and rolled, as is now done to form a subgrade for a macadam road.

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"In any such case an improved road will thus be made which will be vastly better than any former condition of such highway, and which will drain itself much quicker and be in every way much better than the existing roadway. It will not be a macadam road, but it will be an improved road, and its cost will be less than one-third of the cost of a macadam road; or, say, $2,000 to $3,000 per mile. If the local authorities should later desire to make a macadam road on such an improved highway, the grading and ditching and forming which have been described will be so much work already done toward forming such a high grade macadam road."

These quotations from the former reports of the State Engineer are as true to-day as when they were first published.

Much has been said and written relative to the use of the steel track, stone track and particularly that which is known as Long's brick track. The press has contained articles which have been written by purported experts commending the stone track road between the cities of Albany and Schenectady, and you might be interested in knowing that the authorities living in the immediate neighborhood and using this road have petitioned the State Engineer's Department to remove the same and to construct an up-to-date macadam highway.

Many misleading statements have been made publicly and ctherwise, and circulars, pictures and newspaper clippings have been sent broadcast over the state in advocacy of the use of that which is known as Long's brick track, and right here allow me to state most positively that Long's brick track is absolutely impracticable and worthless, and that it is impossible to construct a road of this character on practical lines so that it will give satisfaction in any particular. The facts in regard to the cost and durability of this brick track road have been grossly misrepresented. The only road of any length which it has been attempted to construct in this manner is at Blaisdell in Erie county. I have been informed that an unwily contractor was induced to attempt this work at a cost of $4,000 per mile and he was obliged to abandon his contract. A new contract was then made at something over $7,000 per mile and this contractor also abandoned the work. Erie county took up the work then under the direction of the county engineer and completed the same at a total cost of something over $11,000 per mile. The road was then opened up to heavy traffic, and after a short period of use, owing to its deplorable condition, it became necessary that the county engineer should direct that the whole road. be covered with slag, which was done.

As to the question as to what means should be employed so that the greatest number of miles of Higbie-Armstrong road can be constructed at the least possible cost it would seem that the problem is easy of solution by the cheapening of the cost of delivery of broken stone or other product, which, of course, involves the cost free on board cars or boat and the cost of transportation. There are about 7,000 miles of road to be

constructed under the Higbie-Armstrong act in the State of New York, which will connect all of the principal marketing points and furnish a system of roads complete leading east and west, north and south throughout the entire state. Approximately it takes about 1,000 tons of broken-stone product to complete the top course or wearing surface of one mile of highway 16 feet wide. Therefore a demand is made for over 7,000,000 tons of broken-stone product for this purpose provided these roads should be so constructed that they would be termed a macadam highway. The average cost of this material at the quarry free on board cars or boats varies from 60 to 75 cents per net ton, and it strikes me that the solution of the problem as to the cost of production is an easy one providing that the Legislature should see fit to carry out the recommendations which I have already quoted to you of State Engineer Bond relative to the question of employment of the State's prisoners in quarrying the stone product, crushing the stone by machinery and delivering it free on board cars or boats, thus creating a net saving of over $3,000,000 in the cost of the construction of the entire system of the State or a saving of over $500 in the cost of each mile of highway, and that for surface dressing alone.

Measures should be taken immediately to interest the railways of the state in this great question and to show them that the construction of prominent highways leading to and connecting the principal marketing points will increase the volume of product delivered from the agricultural districts to their stations at from 25 to 30 per cent., that being the amount of farm products which from the best estimates goes annually to waste owing to the inability of the farmers to deliver the same in the spring or fall and when the products bring the highest market price. Their attention should be called to the fact that the railways are in a position to deliver during the next few years over 7,000,000 tons of freight and in addition thereto thousands of tons of broken stone and other products which will be used from year to year in the maintenance of completed roads. Freight rates are a serious problem, and it is undoubtedly a fact that were these questions properly submitted for the considera