CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 



methods employed in the different States vary to suit the different 

 conditions there existing. 



Most of the New England States provide for the maintenance of 

 the State roads after they are built; but Massachusetts perhaps 

 has the most comprehensive method for taking care of this ex- 

 tremely important feature of highway work. Here the State, by 

 contract or by day labor, looks after all necessary repairs and 

 primarily pays all of the • maintenance costs. The municipalities 

 are assessed each year up to but not exceeduig $50 per mile per 

 year, and the amount of these assessments gets back each year 

 into the State treasury. Up to the year 1907 the cost per mile 

 per year for maintenance of the Massachusetts State highways was 

 not far from $100, and the money, for the most part, was raised 

 by direct taxation, and not by the issuance of bonds. 



Some Essential Features of Eoad Construction. 



It is hardly my place in this paper to describe technically the 

 construction of a road under any conditions, for such is more the 

 part of a teacher than of one treating of a question which should 

 be, perhaps, more general in its consideration; and I propose 

 simply to give you the roadmaker's view of what are the methods 

 of procedure under given conditions. 



I can think of no better way of introducing the subject than 

 to describe the developments in road construction which have been 

 made by the Highway Commission of Massachusetts. The State 

 of Massachusetts, as already stated, was one of the first to consider 

 seriously the question of building its roads under the authority 

 and care of trained men. In 1893 the Legislature, feeling the 

 need of a change from previous methods, outlined a plan by which 

 a commission of three suitable men was appointed to take charge 

 of and build certain lines of road throughout the State, the lines 

 selected to be based upon the needs of the communities and the 

 physical conditions. This commission has now been in existence 

 for about fifteen years, and it has built in that time nearly 800 

 miles of thoroughly well-devised stone or gravel roads. It has 

 taken charge of the improvement and rebuilding of several hun- 

 dred miles of town highways, but which still remain town ways. 



Under this law the commission has authority to build any road 

 which is petitioned for by the selectmen of towns or the mayor 

 and aldermen of cities. No appeal can be made from its deter- 

 mination as to what roads shall be constructed, nor can there be 

 any interference with the methods employed by it. 



