WAUPACA COUNTY POST

July 19, 1923

STEVENS POINT WELL PLEASED WITH ASPHALT

JOURNAL QUOTES CITY ENGINEER AS FAVORING ASPHALT COVERING

FOR MACADAM ON HIGHWAY 18

            An editorial in Stevens Point Journal of Friday, July 13, is quite in line with views expressed in the County Post of 12^th inst. Relative to the best and cheapest method of repair of Waupaca city streets that had formerly good macadam surface but which have become rough and uneven.  The Journal believes several miles of Highway No. 18 west of Waupaca might be thus economically transformed into a permanent road bed. It has been pointed out that some of this city’s macadam streets are not macadam to the curb.  Addition of crushed stone or large size washed gravel might be required to fill the gap.  Following is the Journal editorial under the caption

                                                            Asphalt on Country Roads

            Suggestion is made to the Journal by an influential Waupaca businessman that, instead of tearing up the old macadam on Route 18, west of Waupaca, it would be better to asphalt.  It seems too bad to destroy the hard bottom macadam gives.  We have no better streets in Stevens Point than the old macadam streets with the asphalt top.  Asphalt makes a beautiful road, better and nicer to drive over than concrete.  Our city engineer, Colonel W.F. Reichardt, when asked for an opinion by the Journal, said that it was perfectly feasible to do on the country macadam roads what has been done in the city, and also that the new road would be cheaper than concrete and far better, of course, than gravel, and cheaper to maintain. Colonel Reichardt said that would have been the best improvement to put on R. 66, where the macadam from Stevens Point to Jordan is worn out.

            We are anxious only that the best results and the cheapest expenditure may be had.  Now that the gasoline tax has failed, the whole cost of road building may not be lifted, as was hoped it might be, from real estate.  The new gravel being put on Road 18 between Waupaca and Amherst is, of course, only a temporary provision. It must be replaced in a few years whereas the old macadam, covered with asphalt, would make a permanent road. We suggest that the state highway commission, which is trying to do the best it can for the public, investigate the practicability of putting on asphalt surface on that part of Road 18 where the old macadam lies, just west of Waupaca.