72 



It is perhaps unfortunate for the scientific road-builder, or 

 the highway engineer, that there exists a deep-founded con- 

 viction that, howsoever one may be lacking in knowledge on 

 other subjects, all know how roads should be built. Doubt- 

 less acting on this theor}% we find the road work of this state 

 divided among some 4500 officials, 3 to a unit, either a town- 

 ship or road district as the case may be. These officials ro- 

 tate in office so that all in a given community may have a 

 reasonable opportunity to exercise practically their ideas con- 

 cerning road work. 



The road unit in Illinois is too small to handle economically 

 the improvement that most communities need and demand. 

 Until it is possible to do the work under the control of large 

 units, or arrange to have a number of the smaller units com- 

 bined to come under a single control, it will be impossible to 

 accomplish any considerable systematic work; in fact, it may 

 be said generally that no systematic road work in this country 

 has been done except through a larger central control than is 

 possible under the township method. This phase of the ques- 

 tion affects the scientific business methods that should be fol- 

 lowed. 



Modern scientific investigations have made it possible to tell 

 in the laboratory very closely how a given material will act 

 upon a road without the necessity of the more costly experi- 

 ment of actually putting it on the road and observing it. We 

 have to-day a number of laboratories in this country especially 

 devoted to tests upon road materials. The methods of making 

 these tests have been the subject of careful investigation by 

 physicists and chemists. Such a laboratory is to be found in 

 the University of Illinois, where a number of tests for the State 

 Highway Commission have been conducted. 



The State Highway Commission is concerned not alone with 

 road construction but with the construction of highway bridges. 

 The fact that nearly one half of the $5,000,000 raised by the 

 rural taxpayers for maintenance of roads and bridges is spent 

 on bridge construction shows the relative importance of this 

 branch of the work. 



