58 BULLETIN 284, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



WORK OF DIVISION OF MAINTENANCE. 



The maintenance work of the office was separated and a division 

 formed on February 16, 1914, with E. W. James as chief. At that 

 time some experimental maintenance for purposes of securing cost 

 data was being conducted on 8 miles of road in Alexandria County, 

 Va., under a memorandum of agreement with the county authorities, 

 and plans were being considered for maintaining the experimental 

 roads built by the office in Montgomery County, Md. 



On the organization of the division the following lines of work 

 were planned. They are all continuous projects within the limits 

 noted. 



I. STUDY OF THE DETAILS OF ROAD MAINTENANCE AS CARRIED OUT BY STATE 



AUTHORITIES IN REPRESENTATIVE STATES. 



The work under this head will enable the office to draw from the 

 experience of the most advanced and efficient highway organizations 

 in the country the results of their experiments and endeavors, and to 

 extend this information by correspondence and actual demonstration 

 to those communities where improved roads have been built at large 

 cost and are deteriorating more or less rapidly, because of lack of 

 organization, information, and skilled supervision in matters per- 

 taining to road maintenance. The studies are being made in a 

 r umber of States having well-organized highway departments, such 

 as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York. This 

 work has so far been limited to short studies in the first and third 

 divisions of Massachusetts, the first division of New York, the ninth 

 and part of the sixth division of New Hampshire. 



Preliminary inspections were made covering general organization 

 of maintenance force and the system of roads under maintenance. 

 Some general details of average costs and general resurfacing 

 methods were included. The smaller and more intimate details of 

 the work will require personal studies in the field with construction 

 gangs for a considerable period of time. 



II. STUDY OF THE DETAILS OF COUNTY MAINTENANCE IN SELECTED COUNTIES. 



To extend maintenance investigations into regions which have no 

 State organization but still depend entirely on the county system 

 of road administration certain counties are to be studied which have 

 constructed improved roads on a large scale. No work has yet been 

 done in this line, but plans are being made to do work in Allegheny 

 County. Pa.; Montgomery County, Ala.; Hines County, Miss.; Hills- 

 boro and Duval Counties, Fla. The Division of Road Economics 



