86 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



features in the rectangular plan. The absence of radial thoroughfares 

 connecting with village centres creates excessive distances for pur- 

 poses of co-operation and education. In swampy regions, bad foun- 

 dations and difficulties of drainage are inevitable, as no choice is open 

 to select the driest positions. In dry locations, where it would be 

 an advantage to fit in the roads with the system of irrigation so as to 

 damp the earth and gravel roads before dragging, this too has to be 

 overlooked so that a fixed system of survey may prevail above all 

 other considerations. 



Road planning and engineering is a highly skilled profession, and 

 millions of dollars are wasted in the attempt to save money that should 

 be used to employ good men to design the location and construction 

 of roads. 



A CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION OF SAVING DUE TO PLANNING 



In connection with the construction of a certain road in Cape 

 Cod, Massachusetts, the Municipal Journal of America states that 

 the estimates of the cost varied from $14,000 to $36,000. "The 

 layman, without the assistance of the engineer, guessed within 61 

 per cent of the actual cost. The engineer, without being permitted 

 to make a special examination of the problem, was able to guess within 

 39 per cent. When permitted to make a proper study of it, the lat- 

 ter was able to arrive at approximately the true cost, and moreover, 

 what is even more important, was able to reduce the cost by 25 per cent 

 by planning a more economical location" 



The American Highway Association points out, in a comment on 

 this case, that if construction had been started as soon as the legis- 

 lative appropriation was available, it would have been impossible to 

 complete the road, and travellers over the completed section would 

 have been led to an almost impassable trail through loose sand and 

 scrub oak barren. 



The moral of this is not only that preliminary plans of roads 

 should be made by competent engineers in the interests of economy, 

 but that the engineers should have the power to exercise some dis- 

 cretion as to the location of the road. To fix road locations by the 

 hit and miss method of the rectangular survey plan is to impose 

 upon the community expensive road locations and to prevent them 

 from making proper use of the services of competent engineers. 



PLANNING ROADS IN AUSTRALIA 



That the importance of proper planning of country roads is 

 realized in Australia is shown by the following statement, taken from 



