Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/453

 with State funds. Under this post road program, each of the 48 States was to be allotted $10,000 and the remaining $20,000 was to be used for administrative expenses and contingencies. It was estimated that an average of $600 per mile would be spent on this improvement whereby about 50 miles would be completed by each State with their total joint fund of $30,000.

The Office of Public Roads and the American Highway Association sponsored this road improvement in Dunn, N.C., in 1914, the first use of a drag in the county.

A horsedrawn sweeper cleans the surface of a macadam road in preparation for bitumen application. It rid the surface of dust and loose material so that the bitumen would form a positive bond between the cover aggregate and the macadam layer.

It is likely that these roads were built by contract, rather than statute labor as in the past, thus, recognizing the importance of the new road technology. However, though there was probably a change in the labor system, the roads must surely have been built by hand with pick and shovel and by horsedrawn slips and scrapers. The gravel surfacing material was no doubt hauled by teams and wagons. Though many new types of equipment were being developed or modified and improved, construction equipment advertising was in its infancy and so there was often a lack of widespread knowledge of the development. In other cases, if the equipment were known, often the contractors were not ready to accept it or could not afford it. Therefore, during this time, the older methods of road construction often prevailed long past the development of new machinery and techniques.

In this era of post road building, $1.8 million of State and Federal-aid funds was spent in the construction of 425 miles of roads—certainly not a very impressive accomplishment compared to present roadbuilding, but one that meant a great deal at the time. A further advantage of the 1912 Act was that the betterment of these post roads was a good training ground for the engineers of the Office of Public Roads, and this experience was to prove valuable in the administration of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916.

Laying block pavement in Washington, D.C., in 1917. 447