SCIENTIFIC ROAD MAKING. 
purpose of systematizing and correlating the efforts of the individual 
States in the financing and scientific control of highway projects, estab- 
lished the Office of Public Roads. The work of that Office has admir- 
ably fulfilled its objects, with the result that the Federal Government 
has recently passed a Bill appropriating a sum of £15,000,000, to be 
expended in five years, subsidizing £1 for £1 State expenditure on 
approved main roads. Grants from the fund are contingent upon the 
States establishing properly constituted Highway Commissions, which 
are responsible to the Federal Office of Public Roads for carrying into 
effect the specifications provided. As a consequence, many of the States 
have organized Highway Commissions in order to avail themselves of 
Federal aid. A national asset in the form of a highly developed network 
of properly constructed roads is thus in process of development. 
The Office of Public Roads takes the lead in investigational and 
experimental work, with the object of securing data which is necessary 
before the most economical methods of road building and maintenance 
under widely varying conditions can be determined. It acts as a central 
agency for investigational work, and furnishes authoritative information 
on all matters pertaining to roads. It has laboratories for testing and 
research work; it issues numerous publications of an educational 
character, and it includes amongst its employees a number of highly 
qualified experts in road engineering. It actively aids the States and 
local government bodies with advice or suggestions, and makes demon- 
strations of the methods it advocates. 
The work of the Office of Public Roads is divided into four main 
divisions, viz., (a) Road management investigations; (b) Road building 
and maintenance investigations; (c) Road material tests and research; 
and (d) Field experiments. For each of the first three divisions there is 
a separate scientific staff. The work in the last division is carried 
out in collaboration between the various members of the staff of road 
engineers, chemists, physicists, and mechanical engineers. 
(a) Road Management Investigations.—In the road management 
investigations economic studies are made of roads and road systems. 
This involves investigations into the character and amount of. traflic, 
cost of hauling, financial outlay, benefits to the community, and saving 
to the Government in the cost of postal delivery. In addition, all avail- 
able information and statistics relating to roads are collected and 
systematized with a view to finding out the types of road, nature of 
materials, and methods of maintenance which are yielding the best 
results at the least cost, and to ascertain the best kind of road to 
construct to meet particular traffic conditions. 
(b) Road Building and Maintenance Investigations—In the road 
building and maintenance investigations research is carried out to 
determine the cheapest and most efficient methods of construction and 
maintenance, and the information thus acquired is disseminated to 
road officials throughout the country. Object-lesson’ roads are con- 
structed to demonstrate proper methods of building. When an applica- 
tion is received from a road authority for advice or assistance, an 
engineer is detailed from the Office of Public Roads to superintend the 
construction of a short: section of road, and he remains on the job 
TOs 
