Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/70

COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES 41 The department was organized in July, and the State divided into fourteen districts, District No. 3 consisting of Columbia, Luzerne, Montour, Northuberland, Snyder and Union counties, with headquarters at Bloomsburg. The State Highway headquarters is at Harrisburg, the officers consisting of Edward M. Bigelow, State highway commissioner; Joseph W. Hunter, first deputy State highway commissioner; E. A. Jones, second deputy State highway commissioner; Samuel D. Foster, chief engineer; Howard W. Fry, chief clerk; and W. R. D. Hall, statistician. The field work is under the direction of a bridge engineer, fifteen assistant engineers, and fifty superintendents. The auditing department is under the charge of a certified accountant, and the maintenance department is under the direction of a competent engineer.

In addition to the work done in the counties of Columbia and Montour, considerable work was done upon the historic highway in the southern part of the State, known as the "National Road" or "Cumberland Turnpike.” This road was built by the United States government in the years 1804 to 1814, and connected Baltimore, Md., with Alton, Ill. The highway department has improved almost the entire length of this road through Pennsylvania, and intends to make it a model road of modern construction. The great width of this road is a standing rebuke to the "skimpy" methods of the road builders of the past in this State.

The funds expended by the highway department in the years 1912-13 were derived from the following sources: State highway fund appropriation...$3,000,000 Automobile tax receipts appropriated...1,800,000 State-aid appropriation...1,000,000 Balance State-aid appropriation 1907-1900 660642 State-aid funding returned by counties and townships...410050 National Road appropriation...300,000 Experiments and tests fund appropriation...50,000 Traveling fund appropriation...88,000 Continent fund appropriation...79,000 Expense fund, automobile division...$100,000 The roads placed under the care of the State highway commission aggregated 8,827 miles. and the difTeretit classes of construction arc as follows: Brick, asphaltic-concrete, asphaltic-macadam, waterbound-macadam, and concrete. There were 296 main Slate highway routes and 306 alternate lines, the average cost of surveying per mile being S47.87. plotting $11.36 per mile, and checking and tracing $7.96 per mile. In addition to surveying the State highways, 35,512 miles of country roads were surveyed and maps prepared showing the roads, towns, villages and other important places in the districts.

The average expense for maintenance of approximately 6,000 miles of roads in 1912-13 was $160 per mile. The following numbered routes of the State highways are those passing through Columbia and Montour counties: Route No. 2, Sunbury to Danville; No. 3, Danville to Bloomsburg; No. 4, Bloomsburg to Wilkes-Barre via Berwick; No. i6, Bloomsburg to Laporte via Benton; No. i6t, Pottsville to Sunbury via Centralia; No. 183, Bloomsburg to Pottsville via Catawissa and Centralia; No. 185, Laporte to Wilkes-Barre via Benton; No. 239. Bloomsburg to Williamsport via Millville and Sereno; No. 240, Williamsport to Danville via Washingtonville; No. 249, Bloomsburg to Lock Haven via Stillwater, Rohrsburg, Millville, Jerseytown, White Hall and Exchange; No. 259, Danville to Lewisburg via Mooresburg; No. 283, Bloomsburg to Sunbury via Catawissa and Pensyl's Mill; No. 303, Iola to Muncy via Pine Summit; No. 321, Laporte to Benton, and over route No. t6 to Bloomsbutg; No. 327, Bloomsbury to Berwick via Almedia, Espy, Lime Ridge and Briar Creek.

Under the provisions of the act of 1909 the revenues derived from the registration of motor vehicles and operators' licenses were set aside for the improvement of the State roads. From Jan, 1, 1910, to June 1, 1913, the receipts from this source were $2,031,921. It is estimated that the annual receipts from this source will be over a million dollars a year hereafter.

During the period above referred to the length of routes in the two counties under discussion was 127.24 miles, and the total expended for maintenance upon them was $13,659 The work of surveying the township roads was in progress, hut the completed maps had not been placed in the hands of the printer.

The commission is given power to divert or rebuild any State roads, when necessary, to purchase and free of charges all toll roads, rebuild all bridges where necessary, take over all roads running through towns or boroughs where it is necessary to complete the improvement of a route, to aid to the extent of fifty per cent of the cost of the construction of a road through a borough when petitioned, and to make regulations regarding the laying of railroad tracks and nines or conduits upon and under the said roads.