DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION FALL TO PLANS DIVISION

E. V. Miller, Engineer Plans Division The scope of the work of the Plans Division is broad and must be divided into several branches. The first and most important from the technical standpoint is Design of Highways. In spite of our constant trend toward speed and congestion coupled with curves, grades, and clear sight distances, which were safe for the slower moving vehicles of a few years back, we have managed to give Arizona some of the fastest safe roads in the West. The design must adequately cover the present and look well into an ever speeding future.

Hand in hand with the design is the quantity estimate. All the necessary quantity facts, such as the amount of earth and rock moved and structures to be built, must be accurately anticipated in order that the cost may be known. The plans are the picture on which the above described data is placed for reading. They require skilled drafting, as every foot of the road, with its topography must be shown. In fact, all the information essential to the building of the highway must be placed upon the plans in a clear, logical and concise manner. Complete plans for every State and Federal Aid Highway are made in this Department.

The second branch consists of the map division. Here every piece of ground that the Highway Department owns, all their leases and easements are platted in reference to land ties. There are a great number of these and more are constantly being acquired. This work invariably is of the rush nature. All the State maps, of which there are about ten different kinds, are also products of this department. These require accurate and artistic drafting which can only be put out by trained men. All miscellaneous designs such as license plates, the design of highway markers and road signs; the design of insignia for state cars and patrol badges all came from this department. When there are charts and graphs or illustrations of any kind needed this Department is called upon.

The third branch consists of a monthly exchange of progress profiles whereby the work done in the field is placed on our records here, enabling us at all times to tell the status of each particular job. The field construction notes are checked, and any and all changes in the original plans are recorded. All this gives us a complete and absolute recordof the way a job is built, and when finished our plans are “As Built.” The road signing activities also come under the supervision of the engineer of plans. After four years of more or less haphazard maintenance of the thousands of markers and signs which were erected in the state highway system, we were finally authorized a sign patrol. At the present this work is carried on by one field man who is equipped with a Ford ton truck and necessary tools for the erection or repainting of signs. The duty of this patrol is to see that all signs are correctly placed and in good condition. It is, of course, impossible for one man to attempt to maintain all the signs and markers on our 2600 miles of highway system, therefore, the resident maintenance crew of each section is held responsible for the actual maintenance. It is our aim, however, that when the patrol leaves a certain maintenance section the signs in that section shall be in first class condition. This is accomplished by his doing part of the work himself and leaving recommendations with the foreman for further replacements. Since January 1st we have reconditioned signs on 1,900 miles of our system at a cost of $4.50 per mile, including cost of signs.

The final and most spectacular branch of the Plans Department is blue printing. During the past year approximately 300,000 square feet of blue prints were made. The commercial cost of this would have been $12,000. However, due to the use of our own machine and equipment the cost to the State was only $6,900.00-a saving of $5,100, not to mention the time saved and convenience obtained by having the plant at hand. The above cost to the State includes paper, operation, power, interest, depreciation and supplies as follows: Paper, .009 per square foot.

Operation, .007 per square foot.

Power, .002 per square foot.

Int. & Depreciation, .003 per square foot.

Supplies, .002 per square foot.

Total, .023 per square foot.

A typical ten mile road job with twenty-five sheets to print including bridge and culvert drawings will require at least twenty sets of blue prints with 150 square feet in each set or 3,000 square feet, Total which at .023 cents per square foot is $6.90 per project mile.

On entering the past fiscal year the new work in the budget was so scheduled that our normal force of draftsmen and computors was sufficient, but in January congress appropriated an emergency relief fund which gave Arizona $2,000,000 additional money for use in the 7 per cent system, and which must be spent by September 1st, 1931. This with a $650,000 appropriation from the Tenth Arizona Legislature increased our construction mileage materially.

In anticipation of our needs for this emergency the plans division was granted a request for an addition to our budget. With our regular force as a nucleus we built up a “squad” system and by January 26th we were in full swing with forty-two draftsmen and computors working a double shift from 8 A. M. to 11:30 P. M. By April 15th plans were completed on fifty-one projects, twentysix of which were under contract before that date, and nineteen more by June. Every job has a complete set of plans and quantity estimate. No work was let on anticipated design, for every set of plans had its field preliminary investigation by the State and Bureau of Public Roads engineers before the final plans were completed.

In April we were able to start cutting our forces and by May 15th we were only 20 per cent above normal. April, however, was the heaviest month for we submitted about twenty projects to the Bureau of Public Roads for their approval besides advertising or letting contracts on seventeen projects. This naturally increased our blue printing to its peak and during April 54,000 square feet of blue print paper were run through our plant.

A cost summary of the work of the Plans Department shows that plans and quantity estimates were completed for 477 miles of graded, drained, and surfaced projects, and 205 miles of oil surface projects, with a cost distribution as follows: Design and Drafting, $52.50 per mile.

Computing, $30.60 per mile.

Paper, Tracing Cloth, Etc., $7.50 per mile.

Average Drafting Cost, $90.60.

The Plans Division is proud of the 'record which was made during the rush of the emergency program, and the writer wishes to take this opportunity to give full credit to those who gave more than their share of time and effort to the successful completion of this work, upon which the whole Emergency road program hinged.