Concrete Roads
and Their Construction

122 CONCRETE BO ADS in improving its roads, the State of Pennsylvania voted a like amount. The State of Michigan, which, as we have pointed out, was a pioneer in road-building, voted $50,000,000 additional bonds in 1919. This money will be used in extending its road system. During the same year the State of California voted $40,000,000, Oregon $10,000,000, and Alabama $25,000,000, in road bonds. During the coming year Missouri will vote on the issuance of $60,000,000 worth of bonds, and Minnesota will vote on the issuance of $100,000,000 worth of bonds, to be used in. improving the roads in the States named. This sentiment prevails in. practically every quarter of the United States, and bond issues totalling high into the millions were passed, and all was in readiness for the greatest era of road-building in the history of our own. or any other nation. In 1920, $625,000,000 is available for road work, and the programme will yet, in all probability, be much enlarged. But conditions were such that the building had to be either curtailed or postponed. Labour is very costly and at the same time extremely scarce even at the high wage scale offered. Transpoi’tation facilities are to a large extent disorganized and overworked. Their equipment is not sufficient to take care of the present industrial needs of the country, and manufacturers of cement and dealers in road materials find themselves helpless to receive raw material or deliver finished products. A sketch of the concrete road in the United States would not be complete without mentioning the roads built by the State of Cali- fornia. As Wayne County, Michigan, was the pioneer county in con- crete road-building, California stands out in bold relief as the first great State building an extensive mileage of concrete road. California builds her roads almost exclusively of concrete. In this State alone are almost 2,500 miles of roads made of concrete. At the close of 1919 there was a thirty mile stretch of concrete highway known as the " Ridge Route in California opened to the public. The cost of this road was something like $1,200,000, and it was estimated by conservative State officials that with the heavy traffic that would pass over this road the total cost of building would be absorbed in less than 200 days by the saving in petrol, tyres and upkeep on the vehicles passing over it. As has been suggested, the entire people of the United States are strongly in favour of good concrete roads. The term “ concrete ” has come to be accepted as the general word designating all that good roads should be. The Federal Government has made liberal