ECONOMIC SURVEYS OF COUISTTY HIGHWAY IMPEOVEMEN-T. 65 



lace, an area of 6 acres, and cost the county $100 per acre. The 

 maximum output is 30 cars per daj* and the cost of operation about 

 $300 per month. The plant handled enough material m a day to 

 supply the railroad with sufficient ballast at 10 cents per cubic yard 

 in addition to the gravel needed for the roads, to pay for the trans- 

 portation of the road material. 



The roads were graded 24 feet wide on embankments and 30 feet 

 wide in cuts. The subgrade was prepared with road machines to an 

 average width of 16 feet. The material, which was hauled in slat- 

 bottom wagons and dumped three loads abreast (for a width of 16 

 feet), was spread and shaped with a road machine. No roller was 

 used, and the material was consolidated by hauling over each pre- 

 vious day's work. The surface was shaped with a grader to a crown 

 of about three-fourths inch to the foot. The depth of consoli- 

 dated surface averaged from 7 to 9 inches. Private or farm roads 

 entering on improved roads were surfaced for a distance of about 

 100 feet, in order to prevent tracking mud upon the gravel surface. 

 Striking contrasts between the old and the new roads are shown in 

 Plates XXV and XXVII. 



Owing to the numerous small streams and creeks with large drain- 

 age areas emptying into the Alabama Kiver^ the cost of the highway 

 system was exceptionally heavy. It has been the policy of the 

 commissioners to bridge these streams with permanent structures 

 of steel and concrete, and, while the bridges and culverts have been 

 economically designed and erected, the number which had to be 

 constructed caused the total cost to form a rather large percentage 

 of the total expenditure for the road system. From the report of 

 the county engineer on March 1, 1912, it is found that out of a total 

 of $345,293.19 the expenditure for bridges was $83,192. Out of 

 $252,924 expended from bond funds in 1912, a total of $32,570 was 

 expended for 46 steel and concrete bridges, 11 concrete culverts, and 

 19 steel bridges paid for but not erected. The average cost of the 

 roads constructed with bond-issue funds, including the outlay for 

 bridges, was $3,606.66 per mile. 



Aside from the bond-built roads and the State-aid road, the county 

 had improved, up to the year 1915, 69.65 miles of gravel and 37.5 

 miles of sand-clay road. These were built by contract and by the 

 convict forces. On April 1, 1912, the county owned 93 mules and 

 considerable equipment, the whole valued at $27,922. 



An average of from 20 to 60 convicts are regularly employed on 

 road work, and these are worked in one gang. In 1913 the cost of 

 operating the camp, including feed for four mules, was estimated at 

 50 cents per day per convict. Information furnished by the county 

 oflB.cials in 1913 indicates that the average cost of building gravel 

 47234°— Bull. 393—16 5 



