ECONOMIC SURVEYS OF COUNTY HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT. 65 
face, an area of 6 acres, and cost the county $100 per acre. The 
_ Maximum output is 30 cars per day and the cost of operation about 
$300 per month. The plant handled enough material in 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 X XVII. 
Owing to the numerous small streams and creeks with large drain- 
age areas emptying into the Alabama River, 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 
officials in 1913 indicates that the average cost of building gravel 
47234°—Bull. 393—16——_5 
