8 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN 



ROADS AND FORESTS 



Official Paper of Tbe Michigan Road Makers Association and 

 Michigan Forestry Association. 



70 Larned Street West, Detroit, Michigan. 



Entered as Second-class Matter April 27, 1907. at the Post Office at De- 

 troit. Michigan, under the Act of Congress of Mfrch 3. 1879. 



Frank E. Carter.. Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



WANTS NEW ROAD LAW. 



In compliance with a resolution adopted at 

 the last meeting of the Michigan State Grange, 

 the executive committee has been working on 

 a new road law. Logan W. Page, director of 

 the office of public roads, United States de- 

 partment of agriculture, has prepared a road 

 law fcr the State Grange and should this prove 

 satisfactory to the majority of the people o 1 

 Michigan efforts will be made to pass it at 

 the next session of the legislature. 



The bill itself proposes to do away with the 

 present system of state supervision, creating, 

 in the place of the state highway commis- 

 sioner, a state highway commission to con- 

 sist of a professor of civil engineering from 

 each of the two leading universities or col- 

 leges and one civilian member to be appointee* 

 by the governor. It is claimed that this would 

 result in a non-partisan and technically com- 

 petent commissicn. This commission would 

 serve without pay. 



Then it is proposed to engage a man with 

 technical qualifications to act as a state high- 

 way engineer, the commission to engage him 

 and fix his salary. This official would be em- 

 powered to appoint all of his assistants with 

 the advice and consent of the commission, 

 to receive all bids, award all contracts and, in 

 fact, have full authority in all executive work 

 of the department. 



The building of roads under the ccunty sys- 

 tem is favored, each county to go before the 

 highway engineer with plans for approval. All 

 surveys, plans, specifications and estimates 

 would be made by the highway engineer. Im- 

 provements to cost $2,000 and more would be 

 let by contract. The supervision and direc- 

 tion of all such work would be vested in the 

 highway engineer. 



The highway engineer is to keep all state 

 reward roads in good repair, the counties be- 

 ing liable to him for the cost. The cost of 

 all work of building roads is to be paid first 

 by the state, the counties to reimburse the 

 state partially for such work. A property tax 

 to raise the funds necessary for the state's 

 participation in road improvements is provid- 

 ed for and the state highway fund is intended 

 to be distributed among the counties in an 

 equitable manner. 



A provision is made in the bill to utilize 

 the state convicts in the preparation of read 

 material. By having great quantities of road 

 material prepared at state institutions, its dis- 

 tribution throughout the entire state easily 

 could be made. 



A provision also is made in the bill direct- 

 ing the state highway engineer to prepare a 

 tentative system or trunk line of state roads 

 to be paid fcr entirely at the expense of the 

 state. The evolution of state aid laws in the 

 states which have for any length of time 

 adopted the principle of state aid has been to- 

 ward the trunk line system. Conspicuous ex- 

 amples of this are found in the states of New 



York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Iss- 

 land, Maryland and Washington. 



N. P. Hull, master cf the Grange, says: 

 "I wish to make it clear that the Grange is 

 not committed to the details of this bill, but 

 that it is merely submitted for the purpose of 

 eliciting the views of the people of the state 

 as to what changes in our present highway 

 law are desirable." 



ADVOCATES DETROIT ASSOCIATION. 



"If the good roads sentiment is to be per- 

 manent a Detroit Through .Roads Association 

 should be formed at once, that the efforts put 

 forth may be systematized, and the money 

 expended equitably and to the best advan- 

 tage," says Horatio S. Earle. 



"Detroit should pay only what is equitable 

 and it is not expected that every public-spirit- 

 ed citizen in Detroit who is willing to con- 

 tribute something toward the cost of build- 

 ing gocd through roads, knows all about the 

 laws and the art of road building. But if 

 an association were formed, officers could be 

 elected and committees appointed of just the 

 right men for the places, and they would see 

 that the money was given only where it was 

 equitable to give it. 



"For instance, it is not equitable fcr De- 

 troit to give as much as we are now "iving 

 to build the Michigan avenue road out 

 through the townships of Dearborn, Nankin, 

 Canton and Van Buren, to the Washtenaw 

 ccunty line, and when the figures are given 

 everyone in the city of Detroit will agree 

 to it. 



"The approximate amounts paid as county 

 road tax by the five townships who would 

 be the largest beneficiaries in having this road 

 made first-class to the county line, are as fol- 

 lows: 



Dearborn $ 73953 



Nankin 51304 



Romulus- 26136 



Cantcn 35 18 



Van Buren 388 74 



Total $2,247 85 



"As against this Detroit city's tax amounts 

 to $114,918.21. 



"So if the county road commissioners should 

 eject to build Michigan avenue to the county 

 line next year, and the tax levy remains the 

 same the city would contribute $57 for every 

 dollar contributed by these five townships. 



"Now, there is no equity in this, and if we 

 had an association we could direct public sen- 

 timent to such an extent as to correct it." 



A GREAT ROAD PROJECT. 



Dr. J. McKay, of Coleman, would like to 

 see a stcne road built along the line of the 

 principal meridian of Michigan from Cheboy- 

 gan south to the little spot on the map known 

 as Ritters. For several years he has been 

 thinking of the advantages of such a thor- 

 oughfare, what it would do for automobilists 

 and farmers and the country adjacent to the 

 road, and he has been talking the matter over 

 with several well-known citizens of Saginaw. 

 They readily saw the benefit of the road. 



The principal meridian is an imaginary line 

 running north and south through the lower 

 peninsula, and the road can follow it straight, 

 there being no deviation for lakes, a condi- 

 tion that is somewhat of a rarity. Imagine a 

 stone road from the southern line of the state 

 clear through to the straits. 



Wouldn't that be an ideal driveway? The 

 roads feeding into it would be built by every 

 township near the road. The distance be- 

 tween the north and south ends would be 276 

 miles. 



FIELD STONES FOR ROAD WORK. 



It is customary, in many sections employing 

 portable crushers, to utilize field stone, and 

 many roads constructed of this material, in an 

 intelligent manner, present even surfaces and 

 give good service; but where a haphazard 

 method is employed, disappointment often re- 

 sults. The road soon presents an uneven sur- 



face, which is the beginning of the formation 

 of water pockets and repairs. The reason for 

 this is that the stones brought to the crusher 

 are dumped in regardless of their quality. 

 Loads of hard and soft stone are piled to- 

 gether, and stones with no bonding qualities 

 mixed in without consideration. When the 

 road is finished, the spots where the softer 

 stone was employed wear down first. The 

 stones without bonding qualities quickly work 

 loose and appear on the surface, and if not 

 promptly removed act as a deadly weapon, un- 

 der traffic, to destroy the surrounding surface. 

 A light buggy will do more harm to a road 

 surface, by grinding loose stones against it, 

 than a two-ton team will in passing over a 

 surface free from loose stones. 



The stone before going in the crusher should 

 be carefully assorted, and that with the poor- 

 est bonding qualites crushed first, and used 

 fcr the foundation course, and after this has 

 been spread to a depth of four inches, about 

 one-inch of screenings from the best bonding 

 stone shall be spread over it, and slightly 

 raked in before being rolled. After dry rolling 

 it should be watered enough to insure some of 

 the screenings reaching the bottom. Do not 

 carry this far en'ough to wash all of them from 

 the surface. The roller should again be put 

 on. The screenings obtained from crushing 

 the non-bonding stone should be promptly 

 removed from the crusher and thrown away. 

 The remaining stone can be roughly consid- 

 ered in two classes, hard and soft, and a man 

 with a hammer can rapidly determine this. At 

 some plants, all of the hard and soft stone 

 are crushed, separately, and placed in separate 

 piles. Some stretches of the road are built 

 of the soft and others of the hard, each of 

 which present good wearing surfaces. 



Gocd, practical results can be obtained by 

 mixing, either in a uniform feed of both kinds 

 into the crusher at one time practically stone 

 for stone of hard and soft or after crushing, 

 if carefully don'e. When such stone is placed 

 on the road, the wear will be practically uni- 

 form, because if the mixing has been properly 

 dene, practically each alternate piece of stone 

 will be alike and the harder pieces will pro- 

 tect the softer ones from wear. 



This method may sound complicated, but it 

 is not very little additional time is consumed, 

 an c d the results in. the improved wearing quali- 

 ties of your road will pay a divdend many 

 times greater than the best railroad stock in 

 the country. 



A GREAT HIGHWAY. 



Rivaling in scenic environment and excel- 

 lence the finest roadways of Europe the Great 

 Apple Way, connecting the cities of Spokane, 

 Wash., and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is now as- 

 sured. When completed it will be a monu- 

 ment to modern road builders and a standard 

 for generations to come. Bisecting one of the 

 most fertile irrigated fruit districts in the In- 

 land Empire for 31 miles, the roadway, 60 

 feet in width, will be built of macadam with 

 an asphaltum binder. Every mile wll be of 

 standard construction and properly crowned 

 and drained, with fountains for man, dog and 

 horse placed at intervals of a mile. The ma- 

 terial for the fountains is a mixture of con- 

 crete and granite filings, making a beautiful 

 finished stone effect equal to granite. 



The feature will be' the planting of apple 

 trees 40 feet apart on either side of the road- 

 way, these being alternated with English elm 

 trees which afford ample shade, at the same 

 time withstanding the common pests which 

 work havoc among the American shade trees 

 not native to the district. The Spokane Ccun- 

 ty Good Roads Association, of which J. A. 

 Perry is secretary, will supervise the road 

 work. The cost is estimated at $10,000 per 

 mile. 



Golden township, Oceana county, has pur- 

 chased a 10-ton road roller from the J. I. Case 

 Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wis. 

 The roller is one of the company's latest mod- 

 els, which is meeting with popular favor. 



