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



(i) Cutting grass and weeds; 



(j) Trimming brush and trees at curves; 



(k) Harrowing and dragging rough or irregular sections; 



(I) Painting guard rails and culvert heads; and 



(m) Posting roads. 

 Records are being kept of locality of expenditures, so far as pos- 

 sible, by using the county financial records supplemented by private 

 notes and the report cards of the patrolmen. A statement of the 

 cost per mile of work on each patrol section will be possible in a later 

 report, but at the present time only one or two counties have spent 

 more than 55 per cent of the allotted funds. 



The condition of the road under maintenance has been good dur- 

 ing the entire period up to December 23. At about that time the 

 range of temperature in North Carolina and Virginia became such 

 as to cause alternate freezing and thawing, and heavy rains caused 

 swollen streams throughout the entire territory. These conditions 

 at once showed the weak places in the roads. Drainage is prevalently 

 insufficient. This is, of course, largely a structural defect that 

 ordinary maintenance can not cure. Especially has the need of 

 subdrainage been demonstrated. This is almost invariably neglected 

 in the region traversed by this road. 



In many sections it has become apparent that the common earth 

 road is not adequate to accommodate the prevailing traffic. During 

 the best weather and during ordinary summer rains no trouble de- 

 velops, but average protracted rains cause the roads to break up 

 faster and deeper than maintenance can repair them under the con- 

 tinuous stream of traffic. 



Since many of the roads along the route were subjects, not for 

 maintenance, but for actual construction, it was necessary, in the 

 preliminary estimates, to include the cost of minimum improve- 

 ments in all cases where such work was necessary in order to get 

 the roads ready for maintenance. This has led to a great deal of 

 new construction and much reconstruction and repair in each State 

 along the line. The nature of this work has ranged all the way 

 from minor bridge and culvert repairs to the expenditure of bond 

 issues on systematic new construction. The table shows the amounts 

 expended in the various counties in construction under the general 

 supervision of the Government engineers detailed to the project. 

 One assistant has been almost constantly in the northern section giv- 

 ing undivided attention to this work. It is not necessary to itemize 

 the various improvements made, further than that they include all 

 lines of highway work except hard surfacing. Bridges have been 

 relocated and rebuilt or renewed; new roads laid out and graded; 

 earth roads have been surfaced with sand-clay or topsoil; grade 

 crossings have been eliminated by overpasses, underpasses, or re- 



