- Title
- State
-
-
- Date
- January 03 1953
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
State
Hits:
(0)
Take One Large Highway System . . .
Then Double It
In four years, Xortli Carolina built
a network of highways which, per
capita, is the greatest in the whole
world.
By HILL SHARPE
If you're an average Norlh Caro¬
linian. you’ll live out your life without
ever realizing what the secondary
road system is. You won’t see it on a
map. (it’s too big) and you'll travel
very little of it.
But in four years this state has built
over 12.000 miles of new hard-sur¬
faced roads. The program has given
this state the biggest road system - -
population and traffic considered —
in the world. Only five states have
more hard-surfaced highways, and
they arc all immensely larger — Texas.
California. New York, Ohio and Penn¬
sylvania. And only two of these have
more highways directly under state re¬
sponsibility.
This new system, unseen and un¬
used by the average traveler, forms an
intricate network linking every com¬
munity, even the most remote cross¬
roads. serving the furthermost citizens.
Today, almost every citizen of this
state lives within a few miles of a
paved road. (An additional 16,000
miles of roads have been stabilized for
all weather use.)
On January I, 1949. we had 14,-
631 hard-surfaced rural miles, and
this figure increased to 24.900 by Jan¬
uary I. 1952. Another 1.650 miles
were completed by June 30, 1952. and
perhaps 2.900 more by January I.
1953, making an estimated total of
29.450 miles of hard-surfaced state
roads and highways in North Carolina
outside of cities and towns. The sec¬
ondary road system cost $200,000,000.
raised by a bond issue approved in an
election. The bonds will be paid off by
gas tax revenue. This sum is in addition
to money spent on the primary high¬
way system.
How many miles is 29.450? It is
once around the world at the equator.
At the average rate of car usage, it
would take a motorist three years to
travel all of it, without any double¬
backing. Or. at the average tourist rate
of travel per day — 300 miles — it
would require 100 days of steady driv¬
ing.
With equal spacing, every registered
vehicle in North Carolina could use
these rural hard-surfaced roads and
highways at the same time, travel at a
reasonable speed, and maintain a
space of 260 feet between vehicles.
I he building ol this system has re¬
quired tremendous effort. Coming at
a time when engineers were in great
demand, the program taxed to the
utmost the highway department's per¬
sonnel. It has required super perform¬
ance on the part of contractors and
material suppliers, both in this and
adjoining states. During the program.
North Carolina was one of the greatest
markets in the world for heavy high¬
way equipment and road-making ma¬
terials. Employment benefits have
been tremendous.
Reduced to some figures, the pro¬
gram has required 14,800 tank car¬
loads of asphalt and tar. and 126,000
cars of stone, gravel and sand. These
figures do not include stone, gravel and
sand used for the five or six-inch bases
represent paved highways four years ago. The broken lines are the highways
paved since then.
Л
great many more miles (not shown on the map) were
stabilized and otherwise improved.
'Го
get an idea how a slate map of our paved
highways would look, multiply this map 100 times.
i
з
THE STATE. January 3. 19S3
