l62 



NATURE 



[August 4, 1910 



No suggestion of tarring is, however, of any use unless 

 the road itself is constructed of good materials, so that, 

 with the exception of some main roads, few roads in rural 

 districts are at present in a condition for such treatment, 

 though the changed conditions of traffic demand a change 

 in the character of the roads. The new conditions demand 

 increased expenditure upon maintenance both on main and 

 secondary roads. The annual outlay in maintenance and 

 repair of the main roads in England and Wales has 

 steadily increased from an average of 76I. a mile in 1901 

 to more than 100/. a mile in 1909. Here is an average 

 increase of 25 per cent, in eight years, and there is no 

 prospect that the rate of increase will diminish. It would 

 seem that a road system which requires an outlay of about 

 looi. a mile upon the 150,000 miles of road in England 

 must be inefficient and costly. The explanation is probably 

 to be found in the fact that the maintenance of our high- 

 ways devolves upon local authorities. It is instructive to 

 compare our system with that followed in other countries ; 

 and this comparison is made by Mr. L. W. Page, director 

 of the U.S. Office of Public Roads, in a paper on road 

 administration and maintenance published in the May 

 number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. Sub- 

 joined is a summary of a part of this paper. 

 Systems of Road Administration. 

 The basis of the French system is the School of Roads 

 and Bridges, one of the finest technical schools in the 

 world, and maintained at the expense of the national 

 Government. From the graduates of this school are chosen 

 the highway engineers who are entrusted with the building 

 and maintenance of the roads in France. At the head of 

 the administrative organisation is an inspector-general of 

 bridges and highways, under whom are chief engineers in 

 charge of the road work of single departments and com- 

 munes. Single subdivisions of departments are under the 

 direction of district engineers and assistant engineers, the 

 latter being equal in rank to non-commissioned officers in 

 the army. The subdivisions are under the direction of 

 principal conductors and ordinary conductors. Next in line 

 come the foremen of construction gangs, the clerks 

 employed at headquarters, and finally the cantoniers or 

 patrolmen, each having from 4 to 7 kilometres of highway 

 under his immediate supervision. This great administrative 

 machine, working in complete harmony with definite lines 

 of responsibility clearly established, accomplishes results 

 with military precision and regularity. 



In England, jurisdiction over the road is vested in, first, 

 the county boroughs ; second, the county councils ; third, 

 the urban district councils ; fourth, the rural district 

 councils. In most counties the maintenance of the high- 

 ways devolves upon urban councils in the urban districts 

 and rural councils in the rural districts. The only excep- 

 tion to the control of the urban and rural district councils 

 is in the case of main roads which are highways between 

 large towns, and the maintenance of these roads devolves 

 upon the county councils. As to skilled supervision, it 

 may be said that no qualifications are required by law to 

 be possessed by the men in charge of road building and 

 maintenance, but it is the general practice, at least in 

 important districts, to appoint experienced highway 

 engineers for this work. It will thus be seen that the 

 English system lacks strong central control in the counties, 

 there being four different classes of Government units, each 

 acting largely independently of the others. 



Germany is a confederation of States, and it follows that 

 road administration is conducted separately by each State 

 ol the Empire. The Imperial Government exercises very 

 little control over the highways, and does not in any way 

 contribute toward their construction or maintenance. The 

 Kingdom of Sa.xony may be taken as a representative State 

 o' the German Empire. In Saxony the highways are 

 divided into State roads, county roads, and private ways. 

 The State roads comprise those which are built and main- 

 tained by the State. The county roads are generally 

 termed communicating roads, and are built and maintained 

 at the expense of the parishes through which they lead. A 

 striking feature of the Saxony road system is the practice 

 of planting fruit trees along the road. The fruit yields a 

 revenue of about 8000!. a year from the Staff' roads, while 

 the amount obtained from the fruit grown en the county 

 roads represents a much larger sum. 



NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



The State roads are cared for by a commission of 

 engineers. The kingdom is divided into seventeen road 

 districts, in each of which there is a road inspector. Under 

 these inspectors are road masters, who are employed con- 

 stantly throughout the year. Each road master has about 

 thirty-seven miles of road under his direction, and a road 

 force of about fifteen men. In the case of the minor roads, 

 the direct responsibility is borne by the county authorities. 

 They levy and collect the revenues necessary for mainten- 

 ance and new construction. The communities engage the 

 road employees for the continued care of the highways. 

 The technical supervision, however, is exercised by the road 

 masters of the State force. 



The road system of Switzerland is local in character, the 

 various cantons having jurisdiction over the roads within 

 their respective borders. Each canton has at the head of 

 its road system an engineer with capable assistants. In 

 the canton of St. Gaul, which is fairly representative, there 

 are under the control of the engineers five inspectors or 

 road masters who are assigned to certain districts in the 

 canton. The engineers and their assistants must have an 

 academic education and possess a diploma from the Poly- 

 technic Institute, while the road masters are required to 

 have a good technical education. 



It is apparent from the foregoing that while the units 

 of administration in European countries range all the way 

 from the localism of England to the highly centralised 

 system of France, through varying degrees, skilled super- 

 vision is provided for by all the systems, as well as an 

 ample cash revenue sufficient to enable the engineers to 

 carry out the plans for improvement and maintenance. 

 England is the most striiiing example of extreme localisa- 

 tion, and, it is a significant fact, also the most striking 

 example of lack of uniformity in road work and of 

 excessive expenditure in proportion to mileage. It is also 

 significant that the most perfect road system is that of 

 France, which is admittedly the most highly centralised of 

 all the road systems. France, with a total mileage of 

 about two and one-third times that of England, expends 

 about the same amount annually for maintenance. 

 Certainly the inference must be plain, that centralisation 

 makes for economy and efficiency in the administration of 

 the public roads. 



When we turn to the subject of road administration in 

 the United States, we find that about half the States 

 are operating under practically the same road laws as 

 prevailed in England when America was a colony. This 

 system of road administration provides for the payment of 

 road taxes partly in labour, and localises the work to an 

 extreme degree. Organisation is almost entirely lacking, 

 and no requirements are made to secure skill or know- 

 ledge on the part of the road officials. With few excep- 

 tions, no system of accounting is in force, and no definite 

 lines of authority are established, such as would guarantee 

 the wise and equitable conduct of the work. 



The erroneous impression often prevails that when a 

 so-called permanent road is constructed the expense has 

 practically all been met in the first cost. An investigation 

 of the cost of maintaining roads in the leading countries 

 oT Europe shows how incorrect is this view. In 1901 

 England and Wales maintained 26,598 miles of main road 

 at a cost of 74!. per mile. In 1907 England and Wales 

 maintained 27,556 miles of main road at a cost of 89!. per 

 mile, or in six years the cost of maintenance had increased 

 15Z. per mile, an increase of about 20 per cent. In France 

 the increase in cost of maintaining the national roads was 

 about 5 per cent, in the same period. The cost of main- 

 taining main and urban roads in England and Wales in 

 1905 and 1906 was 88!. per mile. In France the cost of 

 maintaining all roads during 1904 was 48/. per mile. 

 While these last figures are not strictly comparable, one 

 being for 1004 and one for IC105, yet the mere fact of 

 one year's difference in time fails to explain the differ- 

 ence of 402. per mile in cost of maintenance — the natural 

 inference being in favour of the superiority of the French 

 system. 



These figures express most forcibly two facts : first, that 

 even the best of improved highways are not self-maintain- 

 ing, and second, that the cost of maintenance varies 

 tremendously with the degree of centralisation of the 

 administrative organisation which has the roads in charge. 



