MAPPING ARIZONA

MARCH, 1938 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 7 MAPPING ARIZONA

The compilation of an accurate and up-to-date set of County Base Transportation Maps for the State of Arizona is one of the several difficult tasks assigned to the Arizona Statewide Highway Planning Survey, which survey is now in progress under the direction of the Arizona Highway Department in cooperation with the United States Bureau of Public Roads.

For the benefit of those who are not already familiar with the general set-up and purposes of the Arizona State-wide Highway Planning Survey, a brief description, perhaps, will not be amiss.

NEED OF SURVEY.

The Arizona Highway Department long ago realized the necessity for a comprehensive study and analysis of the entire road system of the state that it might be able intelligently to plan a long-time highway construction and improvement program.

The need of such a survey was very forcefully brought to the attention of the department when it was first faced with the responsibility for designing and constructing secondary and feeder roads in rural areas. It became quite evident that there was an almost complete lack of data from which to determine properly such matters as priority of construction, location, and character of im By C. C. HUSKISON INVENTORY MANAGER State Wide Highway Planning Survey Improvement. In order intelligently and economically to design and construct a highway, one must have certain essential facts with respect to the right-of-way, character of existing highway facilities, density of population, traffic characteristics, etc.

Therefore, early in 1936, the department welcomed the suggestion of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads that the State undertake a thorough-going survey of the entire road system in rural Arizona, and the Arizona State-wide Highway Planning Survey came into being.

ORGANIZATION.

The organization of the Survey and the methods employed by the various field parties were explained in detail in the May, 1937, issue of this publication and will, therefore, be only briefly referred to here.

The three major divisions of the Planning Survey are the Inventory Survey, the Traffic Survey and the Financial Survey. The results of the investigations of these divisions will be correlated and interpreted so as to present a complete picture of the highway problem. However, this article will deal entirely with the Inventory Survey.

FIELD WORK.

The field work of the Inventory Survey consisted chiefly of making an inventory of the entire public road system of the State-some 26,000 miles-exclusive of streets within the limits of incorporated cities and towns. By means of the Road Inventory, we have for the first time determined by actual measurement the exact extent of our rural highway system. Furthermore, we now know where each road is located, the extent of its facilities, and in detail its present condition. Every road has been catalogued and numbered, and the type, width, length, drainage facilities and general topography have been recorded for each. The location of all rural dwellings, farm houses, business establishments, industries, schools, churches, mines, recreational areas and other places that are the origin or destination of highway traffic have been recorded. Detailed information has been compiled on all railroad grade crossings and bridges. In addition, on the State highway system, all existing conditions affecting curvatures, grade and sight distances that limit the service value of such highways have been carefully located, investigated and recorded.

USE OF FIELD DATA.

The systematic gathering together of (Continued on Page 24)