REDUCTION OF STREET AND ROAD BUDGETS PRESENTS AN ENGINEERING PROBLEM

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS OCTOBER, 1932

It is near the smelter of the United Verde Extension Copper Co. the Colorado has a real competitor for beauty, which is only a stone's throw from her county seat. Once more the rugged mountains are left behind and a well-kept highway surfaces and base structures.

meanders a distance of twenty miles to The savings which are hoped for Sedona at the mouth of Oak Creek Canthrough proposed reductions in the exyon. Sedona has a beautiful setting on penditures for roads and streets will, in the bank of Oak Creek, under the rim the end, be proven mythical. In fact the of the Mogollons. final analysis will conclusively show that The Oak Creek Canyon Highway exthe few dollars apparently gained are only tends from Sedona to the top of the Rim, temporarily saved and will, in effect, be a distance of approximately 17 miles. lost through lowering the purchasing Each mile is rich in scenic beauty and power of the men who must become unalways changing, from one mile post to employed, owing to the curtailment. the next. The scenery is not altogether that of a western mountain region, but The insistent demand for curtailment of governmental expenditures is tending to submerge the inherent need for modern transportation facilities. Reduction of street and road budgets has produced a problem of considerable magnitude for the engineer.

it presents a variety peculiar to this wonderful handiwork of nature. Words fail to describe the unparallelled beauty-show, as we switch back and forth with the engineer and climb the walls of the canyon to the top of the Rim. The remainder of the fifteen-mile trip to Flagstaff is through great natural parks.

"According to the best information available," states Dan B. Miller, managing engineer, Pacific Coast Division, The Asphalt Institute, "more than two billion dollars worth of highways have been built between 1923 and 1930. The ability to move merchandise and people over roads without regard to distance or any other factor has become an integral nec-essity. The capital investment which has made such movement possible must be preserved. In addition, two of the na-tion's largest industries the manufacture of automotive vehicles and the production of gasoline employing more than five Oak Creek Canyon settles its own arguments in defense of its beauty and grandeur. It is a description which cannot be presented successfully to the public on paper. One must go and see for himself this nucleus of all beauty, which, at some time during the year, presents scenes common to every state in the Union.

Drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 last year figured in more than 30 per cent of the motor vehicle accidents in which persons were killed and in about one-fourth of the mishaps resulting in injuries.

Coconino County should be proud of