Editorial

BY: John C. McPhee

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Published in the Interest of Good Roads by the

ARIZONA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

JOHN C. MCPHEE, Editor

CIVILIZATION FOLLOWS THE IMPROVED HIGHWAY

Vol. XII

NOVEMBER, 1936

No. 11

B. B. MOEUR, Governor of Arizona

ARIZONA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION

SHELTON G. DOWELL, Chairman, Douglas

J. W. ANGLE, Vice-Chairman, Tucson

C. E. ADDAMS. Commissioner. Phoenix A. I. WINSETT. Assistant Attorney General. Special Counsel

E. C. SEALE, Commissioner, Prescott

JACOB BARTH, Commissioner, St. Johns

C. C. JARRETT. Secretary, Mesa

GENERAL OFFICE

SID SMYTH, Deputy State Engineer

D. B. HUTCHINS, Vehicle Superintendent

R. A. HOFFMAN, Bridge Engineer

E. V. MILLER, Engineer of Plans

J. W. POWERS, Engineer of Materials

W. L. CARPENTER, Superintendent of Equipment

SWAN A. ERICKSON, Engineer of Certification J. R. VAN HORN, Manager, State Wide Planning Survey.

T. S. O'CONNELL, State Highway Engineer J. S. MILLS, Engineer of Estimates.

H. C. HATCHER, Statistical Engineer

W. M. MURRAY, Superintendent of Stores

M. L. WHEELER, Chief Accountant

C. R. MeDOWELL, Patrol Superintendent

A. C. SIEBOTH. Right-of-Way Agent

W. F. FRERICKS, Purchasing Agent

FIELD ENGINEERS

GEORGE B. SHAFFER, District Engineer District No. 1

F. N. GRANT, District Engineer District No. 2

R. C. PERKINS, District Engineer District No. 3 W. R. HUTCHINS. District Engineer Engineer District No. 4

PERCY JONES Chief Locating Engineer

ROADS BUREAU SUMMARIZES WORK IN LAST FISCAL YEAR

Succeeded that of any previous year in point of projects approved, contracts awarded, and work placed under construction. Contracts were awarded for 22,300 miles at a cost of $489,000,000 of which $393,000,000 was to be supplied by the federal government. Work placed under construction totaled 21,800 miles at a total cost of $454,000,000 of which the cost to the federal government was $369,000,000. The 17,300 miles of road completed were built at a total cost of $280,000,000 including $241,000,000 in federal funds.

During the fiscal year, 300 railroad grade crossings were eliminated, 10 elimination structures were reconstructed and protective devices were installed at 185 crossings. At the end of the year 1,240 eliminations were under contract most of them under construction and 168 elimination structures were under contract for reconstruction.

The combined highway and grade crossing work furnished direct employment of 1,673,935 man-months to an average of 139,500 men. The indirect employment in production and transportation of materials brought the average full-time employment to 362,000 men. Assuming that each worker supports two other persons, highway work administered by the bureau supported more than one million people.

The year's work included improvement of the federal-aid system, extension of the system into and through cities, and construction of secondary and feeder roads. This work wassupported by remaining portions of the public works authorizations of 1933 and 1934, by an authorization of $125,000.000 as regular federal-aid to the states and by allocations of $200,000,000 for highways and $200,000,000 for grade crossing work made under the emergency relief appropriation act of 1935.

Highways are now being designed for the safe accomodation of vehicles moving at speeds of 60 miles per hour. This applies both on new highways and in the further improvement of the large mileage of highways being improved by successive stages. Important among the changes required are improvements of curvature, both horizontal and vertical, that will permit of the longer view ahead that the new high speeds necessitate. In most cases this is done by local corrections of the alignment of the existing road. In some instances, especially where the present roads are crowded closely by property devel-

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OUR COVER PICTURE

Mission San Xavier del Bac, in Santa Cruz Valley, about nine miles from Tucson. Founded by the Jesuits for the Papago Indians about 1720, it is the oldest mission in Arizona or California. Of San Xavier, Poston wrote: 'In San Xavier I love to linger, And muse on the march of Old Time's finger For here with Christ in Holy union, It was I took my first communion.' -Photo by Norman G. Wallace.

TARRY IN ARIZONA

Many readers of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS will attend the Twenty-second Annual Convention of the American Association of State Highway Officials at San Francisco in early December. To you, the Arizona Highway Department extends a cordial invitation to tarry in Arizona either en route to or on your return from San Francisco. Maps, special itineraries or other services will be supplied by the department upon request. To make your Western trip complete you will not fail to visit the myriad points of engineering and scenic interest in this land of lure. To those who plucked oranges and grapefruit from Florida trees during the 1935 convention, we direct attention to OUR vast citrus industry. By NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL INC.