OFFICE OF PUBLIC EOADS AND KUEAL ENGINEERING. 317 



Hampshire, and southern Connecticut. These studies, so far as they 

 have gone, indicate that they are likely to be of much value in mak- 

 ing the office a clearing-house of information regarding the details 

 of maintenance work. 



STUDIES OF COUNTY MAINTENANCE. 



The study of maintenance in those States where all work is under 

 the county unit furnished little of an instructive nature, but revealed 

 the need of some adequate system of handling road work so as to in- 

 sure practical maintenance of county roads. Work has, therefore, 

 been started to develop an effective system of procedure along this 

 line. 



MAINTENANCE OF COMPLETED POST EOADS. 



In order to observe the best methods of maintaining a considerable 

 mileage of bituminous and concrete road and to secure maintenance 

 costs where construction has been immediately under the supervision 

 of the office in all details, maintenance will be continued beyond the 

 period required to obtain the data asked for by Congress on certain 

 of the post-roadG built under supervision of this office. The Mary- 

 land post-road, 5.4 miles in length, has been selected as one of these 

 roads, and arrangements have been practically completed to carry on 

 continuous maintenance of this road for an indefinite period. Simi- 

 lar arrangements are also being made for maintenance of the Texas, 

 Ohio, and Maine post roads as soon as they are completed, which 

 will probably be in the fall of 1915. 



OEJECT-LESSON MAINTENANCE ON WASHINGTON-ATLANTA HIGHWAY. 



The demonstration maintenance work on the road from Washing- 

 ton to Atlanta has been most successful in educating the local 

 authorities in methods of work and in convincing them of the eco- 

 nomical and financial value of maintaining roads for the construc- 

 tion of which large sums of public money have been spent. The work 

 of supervising maintenance was undertaken only in counties which 

 had made formal application and had agreed to accept the super- 

 vision of the engineer assigned and to allot for the work a definite 

 sum per mile, to be expended only on the approval of the engineer. 

 Out of the total of 1,037.8 miles of this highway, 723.7 miles are now 

 under the supervision of this office. 



The need of construction over a large part of the through road was 

 almost everywhere apparent and counties were encouraged to build 

 their links of the road. In this construction work the office furnished 

 every assistance possible and provided a special engineer in addition 

 to the three engaged mainly on maintenance work. As a result of 

 these efforts $101,819.85 has been spent on this construction work 

 under supervision of the office during the fiscal year. 



For convenience in the work, this highway has been divided into 

 the Northern, Central, and Southern divisions. An engineer has been 

 assigned to each division and furnished with an automobile leased 

 from the American Highway Association, with which this office is co- 

 operating in this project. In the operation of the automobiles op- 

 portunity has been furnished to secure very exact and complete cost 

 data, which form the basis for a future report comparing the costs 

 of road supervision using livery and that using motors. 



