MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



13 



Patented 



Economy Road Rollers & Floats 



Practical in Design. Simple in Construction, Efficient 



in Service, Economy in Fact and not in 



name only, Indistrtictible. 



J The ECONOMY ROAD ROLLER 



only one third as much as other Road Rollers. 

 Made of Steel. Gives better service and never 

 needs repairs. Reversible. Sizes- --4 and 5 tons. 

 qThe ECONOMY ROAD FLOAT is the 

 only road drag that is superior to a road grader 

 for repairing and maintenance of Good Roads. 

 Made entirely of Steel. Fully adjustable. The 

 only practical road drag made. Notice the front 

 Cutting Blade. 



JJ A Card will bring you full description of these 

 tools. 



F. L. GAINES 



509 Ashton Bldg. , Grand Rapids, Michigan 



Patented 



GOOD ROADS PROGRESS 



IN MICHIGAN STATE 



OSCEOLA COUNTY. 



Highway Commissioner Fred Andersen and 

 the Richmond township board of Osceola coun- 

 ty have let two road contracts under the 

 state award road law, to James H. McLean. 

 The contracts (All for the building of two 

 miles of road, one mile between sections 

 33 and 34, the other mile between sections 

 5 and 8. The contract is to be finished within 

 three months. The roads are to be graded 

 and graveled in first-class style. This is the 

 first contract of the kind in Osceola county 

 let under the state law, and its outcome will 

 be watched very critically, as on its building 

 depends the building of many more miles of 

 road. The con' tact price for each of the 

 two miles is: For the mile between sections 

 5 and 8, $2,270.40; for the mile between sec- 

 tions 33 and 34. $1,557.60. 



HOUGHTON COUNTY. 



The Trap Rock Valley road, in Houghtcn 

 county, the contract for which was awarded 

 to Thomas Drapeau of Calumet, is completed 

 and formally turned over to the township 

 board. The highway committee, composed of 

 Justice C. O. Jackola, David Armit and Town- 

 ship Clerk George Martin, inspected the road, 

 and made a favorable report. Grading and 

 excavating, for a distance of 7,300 feet was 

 completed within ten days. 



The road is sixteen feet in width, and a 

 trench is excavated on either side of the high- 

 way. A portion of this road, nearly a half- 

 mile, traverses a wooded country, and consid- 

 erable underbrush had to be removed before 

 excavating and grading coud be commenced. 

 In spite of this and other obstacles, the con- 

 tract was completed in record time. 



While this stretch is complete, farmers in 

 the Trap Rock district cannot obtain direct 

 ingress to Calumet, and an old highway will 

 have to be improved. This is three-fourths of 

 a mile in length and extends through a very 

 rough country, east of the Trap Reck valley. 

 It is probable that an appropriation will be 

 made by the township authorities for this im- 

 provement. The new road extends east and 

 is within a mile of Copper City. 



The Calumet township board of Houghton 

 county decided to improve several of the roads 



in the township, as well as build new ones. 



A new road, a quarter of a mile in extent, 

 will be built leading from the corner of Wocd- 

 land avenue, Laurium to connect with a new 

 road Schoolcraft township authorities are 

 building to allow farmers and others to reach 

 Calumet with their market products. 



The township is also clearing a road to the 

 fishermen's colony on the Lake Shore. This 

 road when completed and opened will be a 

 very desirable one, and will prove of distinct 

 advantage not only to the farmers and fisher- 

 men residing there, but to Calumet res'dents 

 desiring a particularly pleasing driveway. 



SAGINAW COUNTY. 



Deputy Highway Commissioner Frank F. 

 Rodgers of Lansing accompanied County 

 Road Commissioner Alpheus Green of Sagi- 

 naw county in a tour of inspection of road 

 work completed this season, and the result 

 of the inspection was the acceptance of one 

 and one-half miles on the Gratiot road in 

 Richland township, two miles of North Wash- 

 ington road in Buena Visita township, one- 

 half mile Shattuck road, Saginaw town, and 

 one-half mile of the Jamestown road in James- 

 town. The acceptance entitles the county to 

 receive state reward money on all these roads 

 at the rate of $1,000 per mile. This is the first 

 state reward money applied for by Saginaw 

 County this year. None of the roads built 

 under Commissioner Green's supervision have 

 failed of passing inspection. 



Sagi-naw county is following the example 

 set by Wayne county in starting to build 

 concrete roads. The road to be thus perman- 

 ently improved is the so-called Genesee road. 

 The improvement will begin half a mile south 

 of the city limits of the city of Saginaw. 

 Will extend southeasterly for a distance of 

 four miles. The concrete roadbed will be 

 nine feet in width. 



WANTS MORE EQUITABLE REWARD. 



"Wayne county is building wider, deeper, 

 less dusty and more durable roads than any 

 other county in the state," says County Road 

 Commissioner Edward N. Hines, "but I don't 

 believe we are getting a square deal in the 

 matter of state reward. Other counties, where 

 the greatest amount of macadam construction 

 is being carried on, build, in most instances, 

 a 9 ft. limestone macadam, which is not com- 

 parable in cost, durability, usability, ur in 

 fact in any way, with the fine concrete roads 



we are building. Still, a 9 ft. road draws from 

 the state treasury $1,000 per mile, while cur 

 18 ft. concrete roads draw but the same 

 amount. Our beard proposes to work for an 

 amendment to the state reward road law, and 

 provide a new c'assificaticn which will cover 

 Wayne and other counties which may in the 

 future build as high a type >cf road as we are 

 building. We are going to suggest a para- 

 graph to the law something along the follow- 

 ing lines: 



For every mile of well graded road on which 

 the steepest incline shall net exceed six per 

 cent, and the width of wtiich shall not be less 

 than 18 feet between side ditches, and which 

 shall be properly drained, and have a wagon 

 way 'C.r travel track not less than nine feet 

 wide, and which shall consist of not less than 

 six inches of concrete laid at the proper con- 

 sistency, composed of Portland cement, sand 

 and stone, evenly and thoroughly mixed in a 

 mechanical mixer, cement to be of American 

 manufacture and t meet the requirements of 

 the American Society of Testing Materials 

 then in force, sand to be clean sharp bank, 

 lake or river sand of crushed quartz, granite 

 tr trap rock, ranging in size from to that 

 which will be retained on a screen having 4 

 meshes to the inch, the larger particles to pre- 

 dominate; and the stone to consist of washed 

 or screened pebbles, crushed limestone, crush- 

 ed cobblestone, crushed granite or trap rock, 

 ranging in size from 54 inch to \ l /2 inches, the 

 coarser particles to predominate; provided, 

 that suitable expansion } ints extending the 

 entire vertical thickness of the concrete at 

 right angles to the line of the road are pro- 

 vided at least every 50 feet; shall merit, if ap- 

 proved and accepted by the state highway 

 commissioner, a reward of one thousand dol- 

 lars per mile, and pro rata for extra miles 

 and fractions thereof in excess of the first 

 mile; and for each additional foot in width 

 of wagon way or travel track (concrete) up 

 to a total of eighteen feet, an additional one 

 hundred dollars per mile and pro rata for ex- 

 tra miles and fractions thereof in excess of the 

 first mile. 



"In my judgment it behooves all good roads 

 advocates to see to it that their prospective 

 legislators are pledged to support such an 



amendment." 



STONE ROAD AT SMALL COST. 



F. S. Roth, superintendent of Shelby read 

 building operations in Oceana county, furn- 

 ishes the following detailed statement of the 

 cost the half mile of stone road completed on 

 the State road south from F. H. Moore's 

 corners: 



Grading Road $100.00 



125 cord stone 375.00 



Wheeling stone to crusher 45.25 



Breaking stone 



Feeding Crusher 16.00 



Engineer 16-00 



Engine hire 14.00 



8 tons coal 



Hauling coal and water 24.50 



Hauling coarse stone 56.00 



Hauling fine st Hie 10.50 



Loading fine stone 13.12 



Spreading fine stone 5-25 



Rolling and sprinkling 



Oil and incidentals 10.00 



Total $802.62 



This cost is very low, due to favorable con- 

 ditions and good work by those engaged. The 

 showing indicates that good reads can be 

 made under ordinary circumstances at a cost 

 that the commun'tv can well afford to meet, 

 and should encourage a continuation of the 

 work until all of the main traveled roads 'are 

 made as good as the >cne here shown. 



By the provision for state aid more than 

 half of the cost of this piece of road will be 

 paid by the state highway department's award. 

 Good roads are an economic necessity. Good 

 roads are cheaper than poor roads. The 

 community which builds good roads and then 

 receives state aid is doubly rewarded. 



