MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



A MONGREL CULVERT. 



The above is an illustration of what State 

 Highway Commissioner Horatio S. Earle 

 styles a "mongrel culvert," being neither one 

 thing nor another, and whenever he finds one 

 of them he cusses just as hard as the Method- 

 ist ritual will allow. 



The culvert pictured here is in a road which 



What might be expected has happened. Last 

 spring when the water was high and the 

 ground soft, it was washed out underneath the 

 cobblestones, and out they went, and one-half 

 of the bridge settled down eighteen inches. 



The township board held that the bridge was 

 safe and it was best to use it as long as pos- 

 sible, but Earle ruled that he would retain 

 $200 of the state reward on the road if they 



is now being improved with '-ravel under the 

 specifications of the state highway depart- 

 i nient. and has been ordered by the commis- 

 : sioner to be rebuilt. It has only been in for 

 i three years. 



Common field- cobbles were first piled on 

 the shore of the little brook, about two feet 

 high, then a concrete arch was thrown over 

 the stream resting on these cobble abutments. 



did not build it over, so over it is going to be 

 built. 



Earle says there are hundreds of just such 

 cases as this all over Michigan, costing mil- 

 lions of money, but if the law is lived up to 

 hereafter, and competent engineers are em- 

 ployed to plan the culverts and bridges for the 

 commissioners, there will be no more such 

 work done. 



BETTER ROAD SYSTEM DEMANDED. 



Last year Mason county expended $21,000 



i upon is:> miles of county roads, $114 per mile. 



The results obtained were all that might be 



expected under the present system but it is 



worth while to discuss whether some system 



trnay not be adopted that will give larger re- 



r suits, whether we are not spreading out our 



appropriation over so many miles as to make 



lit too thin to give satisfaction anywhere.' 



The county road system at present provides 

 that the commissioners shall adopt certain 

 pieces of county road and thereafter such 

 roads shall be maintained at the expense of 

 the county. Under this system long stretches 

 I of road, miles at a time have, by scratch of a 

 pen or word of mouth, been made county 

 roads. Beyond the naming of them county 

 roads, beyond assuming the cost of keeping 

 them up nothing has ever been done, nothing 

 in the way of permanent work and nothing can 

 be done to make many of these highways 

 county roads, real county roads. 



The county must pay every item of cem- 

 porary repair and temporary expense connect- 

 ed with these roads whether it be replacing a 

 broken plank in a bridge, filling a hole in the 

 road or placing a steel tube. The county 

 must foot the bill even if the township could 

 do the work at much less cost. Instead of 

 asking the county and the county commis- 

 sioners to spend their time and their money 

 \ upon a hundred details in remote corners of 

 ' the county would it not be better to center the 

 expenditure of money and effort upon roads 

 i that were county roads in more than mere 

 | name. 



We suggest a system that would provide 



I such expenditure. We suggest that roads be 



' made country roads as rapidly as they are made 



i county roads in fact, as soon and no sooner 



than they are ready for permanent work. 



] Whenever a piece of gravel or stone road is 



! constructed, or is ready for construction by 



| the commissioners such road would at once 



| become a county road and the county would 



be in duty bound to maintain such road. We 



suggest a system that would permit and call 

 for the extension of the permanent roads but 

 that will relieve the county road makers from 

 work that can be done, in many cases, at one- 

 lenth the cost by neighborhood road makers. 



For example, it is wild extravagance to send 

 a man and a team at a cost of $2.50 from 

 Scottville to replace a plank in the bridge 

 across Sauble river when the township com- 

 missioner could put in the plank for 50 cents. 

 Yet under the present system that sort of 

 thing is being done continually. 



We urge that the township be left to do the 

 work, it can do more economically than the 

 count", we urge that the county's money be 

 spent for construction and maintenance of 

 roads that are county roads in more than 

 name. We urge the adoption of real county 

 roads, we urge a system -that will do away 

 with wasting thousands of dollars driving up 

 and down and accomplishing nothing. 



At one time the present system looked all 

 right. Maybe it was all right. Today we 

 have outgrown it and we want a better, more 

 economical system. Ludington Record-Ap- 

 peal. 



AN EXPERIMENTAL ROAD. 



The Solvay Process Company of Detroit is 

 building an experimental road on its grounds, 

 after State Highway Commissioner Earle's 

 specifications, which are in short: two parts 

 common gravel pebbles and one part crushed 

 limestone. This to be laid in two, five-inch 

 deep courses, loose, and to be thoroughly 

 mixed and harrowed and wet with the Solvay 

 Process Company's calcium chloride and rolled 

 until hard. 



The object is to harrow while wet, and roll 

 until the softer material, the limestone will be 

 crushed more or less as may be necessary to 

 fill the voids in the hard gravel pebbles, and 

 tb" road will then be as hard as a rock. 



of Mason on the proposed route to Jackson, 

 and the Northern Construction Co. has sent 

 an inspector to the northern part of the state 

 after 5,000 ties for the new line. Twenty bal- 

 last cars, four flats and a steam shovel have 

 been purchased for construction purposes, and 

 two steam engines are being bargained for for 

 the same purpose. 



PASSING OF A LAND MARK. 



While Muskegon people have a feeling of 

 satisfaction as they look at the substantial new 

 steel and concrete bridge being built across 

 Mona Lake, yet their gratification is mingled 

 with regret over losing one of the most pic- 

 turesque sights that that summer resort re- 

 gion affords the old "float bridge," which is 

 being demolished. 



For over a quarter of a century the floating 

 plank road furnished a passage across Mona 

 Lake's pretty waters. It was the meeting of 

 the ways for the north and the south shores, 

 and the upper and the lower ends of the lake. 



In time gone by when Lake Harbor had 

 hardly outgrown its lumbering days, when it 

 was still in the height of its greatest berrying 

 days, and when it had not yet arrived at its 

 summer resort days, driving from one shore 

 to the other of Mona Lake was quite a serious 

 problem. To those persons who resided on 

 the farther side it meant a long, toilsome trip 

 by way of the old corduroy road around the 

 head of the lake, in order to get into the city. 



Public spirit was what built the old bridge. 

 George N. Cobb and his son Ruth, both now 

 dead, started the subscription paper. Fifty 

 dollars was what each farmer put down after 

 his name, and $50 was no easily gotten bonus 

 in those days. It meant a sacrifice on the part 

 of the givers. Finally a total of $1,950 was se- 

 cured. From this amount the bridge was built. 



The name "float bridge" is paradoxical, for 

 the visible portion did not float on the water, 

 but rested on skeleton piers. Large timbers 

 were laid crosswise like a series of big cob 

 houses, each of which latter was built up from 

 the bottom of. the lake. On these the plank 

 roadway was laid. 



In recent years, however, the old bridge has 

 gradually outlived its usefulness. An occa- 

 sional renewing of planking would be made, 

 but there were accidents at the draw, and 

 high-strung horses would sometimes -become 

 frightened at the splashing of water that over- 

 lapped the driveway. 



Finally the structure was closed to traffic 

 and the work of tearing away begun. By Dec. 

 1. it is expected, a $25,000 modern bridge will 

 be reared in its place, 1,000 feet long, and 

 with a clear driveway of eighteen feet. The 

 old "float bridge" will then have become a 

 memory. 



ROAD WORK COMPLETED. 



The road work of the Lansing-Mason line 

 is completed. A surveying party is busy south 



TEN MILES OF GOOD ROADS. 



About ten miles of road will be built in Kent 

 county this year, about eight of which will be 

 eligible for the good roads reward from the 

 state.^ All of it is to be gravel road. 



"It's a good deal better to put down gravel 

 road where you can," says State Highway 

 Commissioner Earle. "Why? Because you 

 can put down twice as much of it for the same 

 money." 



George E. Rowe has been appointed agent 

 by Mr. Earle for Kent county and will start at 

 once in an effort to get ten freeholders in 

 every township and city or village to petition 

 for the adoption of the county road system. If 

 Mr. Rowe is successful in getting the petitions 

 the matter can be put to vote in the spring. 



This year is the first time there have been 

 funds available for promoting the county roads 

 system. Heretofore petitions were secured by 

 voluntary effort. Now the income from motor 

 vehicle licenses can be used to help put new 

 counties in the good roads system. There are 

 57 of the 85 counties in the state not now 

 under the law, but Earle hopes to get most of 

 them in and says the state will be spending 

 $1,0(10. Olio a year for good roads in a few years. 



