BETTERMENTS KEEP OLD ROADS UP TO DATE

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Betterments Keep Old Roads Up To Date

One of the important duties of the maintenance division of the Arizona Highway Department is carrying on the betterment projects of the highway budget each year. This important work is carried on by the maintenance division under the direction of the district engineer in the district in which the work is located. Much of the traveling public, when they see a highway crew at work knocking off the corner of a curve, widening the highway in a dangerous spot, seal coating a stretch of oil surfaced highway, have the opinion the forces are doing something that should have been done when the road was built. Such is not the case. As we know, at the time highways are constructed, they are built with a view of giving the service which the importance of the road at that time demands and according to the traffic which the highway bears. Many of Arizona's roads were originally built to open up some particular scenic section or to serve local communities. At that time they were good highways for what they were intended. Since then traffic has increased over those sections. Commerce has succeeded sightseers or the connecting road has become a link in an important highway. Traffic has increased. Speed has been added to one of the requirements. Heavy laden trucks have replaced the jitney of former days.

Traffic Conditions Change

Where once a road was noted for its scenic thrills, today the bulk of the traffic cares nothing for the view and for the sake of safety and comfort it is up to the highway department to remove the sharp curves, the dips and the narrow roadbed spots and replace them with wider turns of increased vision, dips with box culverts and widen the roadway and strengthen the bridges. Time too, takes its toll of every road. Bridges wear out, floods scour the footings, retaining walls crack and general wear and tear of fast moving, heavily laden traffic demands a constant removal of old structures and the build-ing of new ones. Thousands of feet of old fence has to be replaced with the modern guard rail. Bank protection, rip rap, jetties and stream deflectors, drainage ditches and dykes are a constant duty of the betterment work to keep a modern highway in repair.

Apache Trail - Where the corners have been knocked off, improving the visibility.

These works are too great for the maintenance crews to undertake, along with their regular work and a force of foremen, trained in these particular jobs, are moved about by the engineers to do the work as has been foreseen and provided for in the year's budget.

Betterment jobs range from 500 to $50,000, according to the character of the improvement needed in the highway. The work is done by force account by the state, and forces employed range from five to 50 men on each job. Labor for such betterment jobs are recruitedIn the district in which the work is being done. During the present fiscal year 35 betterment projects were scheduled in the highway budget and a total amount of $239,350 was set up to do the work.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Some of the outstanding work that has been done in the way of betterments this year have been

1. The widening of cuts, turns and narrow roadway on the Apache Trail as far as Canyon Lake. This work was done with a three-eighths cubic yard shovel and dump trucks. The work was almost entirely in solid rock formation and cost about 60 cents per cubic yard in place on the road, for a total expenditure of $15,000.

2. Coronado Trail between Clifton and Metcalf and Metcalf north. This project has been mostly a hand labor job consisting of widening the highway in narrow rock points and building and repairing rock and masonry walls and bridges. The cost of this work will amount to $30,000.

3. The widening of turns and the increasing of visibility on the White Spar highway south of Prescott. This is one of the greatest used mountainous highways in the state and is a high speed road. The betterment work being carried on will greatly increase the safety factor of the highway.

4. The cinder surfacing of 15 miles of the Rice-McNary highway from McNary to White River. This work was done with a three-eighths cubic yard shovel and dump trucks. The cinder pit was located at one end of the project, necessitating a long haul, yet the work was done for 80 cents per cubic yard in place and this dangerous piece of highway that was almost impassable in wet weather has been turned into a high speed road.

Half of Work Completed

To date about one-half of the betterment work for the fiscal year has been completed and the other projects will be undertaken as rapidly as the equipment and machinery is available. One of the important projects on which some work has been done, but which will be completed this winter is the widening of East Van Buren street from the Phoenix city limits to the Tempe bridge. This early concrete road of 18 foot width is one of the heaviest traveled arterials in the state and structures and road bed will be widened nine feet on each side of the present highway. The securing of additional right of way needed in some places has delayed the undertaking of this project.

The district engineers are ever on the alert for these necessary betterments. They must be anticipated and each year the division prepares their recommendations which are submitted to the highway commission in the month of May for their consideration and decision as to what will be undertaken during the coming fiscal year.

Care Should Be Exercised In How You Load Your Car

Packing equipment on a motor car needs more attention than just making sure it will stay on. Motorists should remember there are laws regarding how baggage shall be piled on a motor car and Superintendent James M. Hall, of the Arizona Highway Patrol, has a few suggestions to make: "Do not permit equipment to protrude past the hub caps on the left side of the car," says the superintendent.

"Be sure that no ropes trail under the car; "License plates and lights must not be obscured by luggage or equipment; "When animals are transported on the running board, suitable cages or containers should be provided to protect the animal."

CALLING TO THE "ROAD HOG"

A suggestion looking to the solution of the "road hog" problem comes from Arthur E. Overbury of Monrovia to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Briefly, the plan is to have motorists adopt a signal of three short, sharp toots of the horn to become known as notice for the slow driver to move over out of the center of the road, "please."

The author of the idea believes that with the new road hog law in effect that the three toots becoming known as a warning signal would eliminate a great deal of inconvenience and danger caused by slow driving near the center of the highway.