Road Construction and Maintenance.
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Functions of Central Authorities and Local Authorities.*
The Problem to be Solved.
The problem now before the student of road administration is a fascinating one. It has been shown that the universal tendency to-day is towards increased centralization. To what. will it lead ? The Belgian author carries the demand for centralization to its utmost extreme—one unified system of high, way administration maintaining all roads and controlled by the State. Is this sound? In the long run, will all countries adopt this form of organization? Or is a solution in the direction of a local oeganization controlled by locally-elected bodies but supervised end assisted by the State? If so, what is the minimum unit for a successful local authority? What should be it functions? What should be the limit of the powers exercised by the State? If, in short, roads are to be maintained by the State and the local authority acting as partners, what are the terms of the partnership? The authors of the valiozls papers with one exception all ask that. further steps be taken in their respective countries towards thie ideal of a centralized authority. The exception is to be found in the Minority Report which appears in the paper submitted by the United Kingdom, in which the repreeentatives of the rural district councils protest against this tendency and ask not only that. it shall be carried no further but that it shall be checked and that the steps taken towards greater centralization shall be retraced. Their arguments deserve consideration. They may be briefly summarized as
1. Centralization introduces too much officialism; 2. A central authority does not possess local knowledge or take proper notice of local sentiment and feeling ;
3. Centralization secures uniformity at too dear a price;
4. Centralization leads (in some eases) to two authorities exercising jurisdiction over one area; and 5. The cry for centralization comes from the users of the roads who are not local ratepayers. These are real objections and they have to be considered by balancing them against the advantages ;—
1. With regard to the cry of "too much officialism," however, it must be remarked that the day of amateur road making is past. In the 18th and well into the 19th century it was assumed as the basis of English local legislation that. any parishioner was qualified to act as a road surveyor, with the result that even to-day every Englishman is born with the profound conviction that he is as fully competent to make a road as he is to sit in Parliament. But the facts do not correspond with this theory. Road engineering has now become a highly expert department of human knowledge requiring trained men who have devoted their lives to the stody of the subject, and no system will stand examination that does nnt bind into its service adequately remunerated and competent administrators and engineers. Ii is in tile appointment and selection of competent engineers thatminor authorities, whether in England, the United States, Canada, or in any country in Europe, have absolutely broken down. Small local authorities with small revenues at, their command are unwilling and unable to pay the salaries to secure the services of competent men, and it is this fact more than any other which growing experieuce has forced upon those who are finally responsible for the public administration in any country that road authorities in the future meet have suffielent resources to be able to pay salaries sufficient to acquire the Cervices of competent engineers. Nor must it he forgotten thatthat small local authorities are often composed of men with limited outlook and limited incomes, and it cannot be expected that they will willingly appoint as their servant an officer whose knowledge, standing, and emoluments are much greater than their own. Nor, on the other hand, can a technical officer he properly supervised on the purely technical side of lire duties except by a senior in his profession. 2. The suggestion as to securing local information and considering local feeling is a, good one, but it is to be doubted svliether it is necessary to crate small local executives to
secure it This information can be secured by a. form of organization which can be worked into and form part of a larger orgauization.
Local _authorities administering small resources possess, as the German writer has already stated, an uncontrolled instinct of economy, and local sentiment, as the history of highway
administration in England has demonstrated over and over again, is unwilling to spend any money in improving roads to meet demands greater than those of the locality itself. " What was good eucugh for our fathers is good enough for us " is a common philosophy of small communities. " We will not spend money to maintain roads for alien ' traffic " alien" being the traffic not originating in the immediate district. This uncontrolled instinct of economy, as history has repeatedly proven, is often in the long run more costly than the must extravagant expenditure.
3. " Centralization secures uniformity at ton dear a price" is the third objection. There is a danger that a highly centralized bureaucratic form of government, out of touch with local sentiment and feeling, may purchase uniformity at too dear a price, and this is a danger that has to be guarded against under any form of centralized administration. It is the experience drawn from this argument that favours a partnership between the local authority and the State in the making aud maintenance of roads. The children of extreme decentralization are inefficiency, lack of adaptation of means to ends, waste of effort in consequence of the absence of -some guiding intelligence animating and directing the whole. The children of centralization are a costly uniformity and lack of initiative. It is possible that in a happy combinetica of properly constituted local authorities, working iii partnership with a directing and assisting central authority, that the solution of the problem will be found. 4. The two last objections are of a local character arising out. of the peculiar administrative and financial conditions that prevail in Englend. In dismissing them it. may perhaps be noted that there is considm able force in objection No. 4 from the point of view of the rural district councils, and that is that only one authority should have jurisdiction in a given area. This view can be met either in the way that. the rural district councils recommend by them, viz., placing all roads (both main and district) in their bands, or by abolishing the rural district, council as a highway authority altogether and placing the maintenance of the roads entirely in the hands of the county councils. In either alternative the objection to two authorities having jurisdiction_ over one area. and passingover one another's roads to get to their own, is met.
5. Objection No. 5 is a financial one Rnd might. appear to bear the interpretation that the real objection in the minds of the writers is that of the local ratepayer being compelled to maintain out of local rates roads of a higher standard than he requires for his own purposes. %Mother the higher standard is a proper standard is aquestion of fact in each case, but this abjection can also be dealt with by a redistribution of the financial burden.
Centralization and Decentralization.
An examination of the various papers, supplemented by careful study and investigation of the highway systems of many countries, forces one to the conclusion that it is impossible to lay down any general rule of universal application on the question of the centralization or decentralization of road administration. Nations, like individuals, are different, and forms of government are the product of the special characteristics of each nation. People must work out their own salvation like individuals. They cannot be saved from above, and history would appear to show that some nations develop better tinder a more highly centralized system of government than others, Those European countries which have already adopted a centralized system of road administration wilt doubtless continue to perfect that system. There is no sign under modern conditions that countries like France or Belgium will retrace any step they have taken towards centralization. On the other hand, it is clear that the countries in which there is little or no centralization at present are taking rapid steps in that direction.
In the English-speaking countries, with whose history and methods of government I am more familiar—the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa —I think that although road administration will be more centralized it will never, within the lifetime of the present generation, arrive at that state in which the Central or the Federal Government wilt itself undertake the maintenance of the roads or any part of them. The development will be in the direction of :— 1. The Central or Federal Government contribnting out of revenues raised nationally a portion of the cost of highway administration for the purpose of securing (a) Some measure of uniformity in the maintenance of roads of national importance; and
(6) Some measure of equalization in the burden of the cost of maintenance throughout the country.
2. The abolition of the smaller highway authorities and the constitution of units sufficiently large to secure efficient highway administration.
3. Some measure of State supervision of the local unit of highway administration in order to secure that it efficiently discharges its duties, at any rate in so far as those roads which are of national importance are concerned.
4. The nationalization and control of the personnel employed in highway administration.
S. The nationalization of the rules and regulations governing the use of the highways.
The functions of the central government in these countries may, therefore, be summarized as :—
(a) Lersis(oSive.—To determine the areas of local administration, the constitution of the local authority, and the general tegulations under which traffic shall use the roads. This will probably involve the State undertaking tile classification of roads.
(h) /eine/rich/lose-To provide out of national taxation a portion of the funds for road maintenance, and to see that the burden is fairly equalized all over the country, and falls upon the right shoulders. fe) Reeptlatice.--To supervise local administration and intervene when it is inefficient.
(d) Advi,lory.—To act as the intelligence centre for the country, animating, advising, and stimulating the local authovales.
The duty of the local authority will he to actually carry out the duty of making and maintaining the roads, with a peefeetly free hand in the choice of its agents and methods, provided only that it secures efficient results.
The Effect of the Size of Areas on the Financial Burden.
The existence of a large number of highway authorities results in extreme variations in the burden of the cost of maintaining the highways. A piece of property may be divided by an imaginary line, and on one side of that line the burden for maintenarice may he double that on the other side. An illustration may be furnished in Surrey, where the cost of maintenance of roads to the ratepayers in the Farnham Urban District is 13. and in the Farnham Rural District, which surrounds the Ilrban District, it is 2s. in the of assessable value. In London the variations are censiderable. London is divided for highway purposes into 29 districts. The county expenditure for bridges. tunnels, subways, and road
improvements is eq-iivalent to 8d. per of assessable value. The total burden on the ratepayers in six districts is shown below, averaged over five years.
The total burden in the counties also shows considerable variations. In Durham the ratepayers on an average pay 5.7d. per .E of assessable value for their roads (main and district), Middlesex 11.0d. and Lancashire 11.5d., whereas in many counties it is more than double these sums, including Gloucester l24.2d.), Hereford (24.7d.), Isle of Ely (32.4d.), Lincolnshire, Holland (28.3d.), Lincolnshire, Kesteven (24.4d.), and Oxfordshire (24.7d.). In Scotland large variations in the burden of read improvement, and maintenance are also shown. In some burghs the expenditure is as low as 3d. in the £ of assessable value, and in some counties it is as high an 18d. to 24d.
In fixing the areas of local authorities, the consequent financial burden should he carefully taken into consideration by administrators, and experience appears to show that it is desirable to spread the burden as widely as possible. Tho finance of roads is not properly within the scope of this paper, but it is important to recognize that administration is governed by finance. The most perfect administrative machine will not work if funds--the power which sets it in motion-are not forthcoming in adequate quantity and at the proper time. On the other hand a poor machine will work somehow if power is forthcoming. The ideal to aim at, is a good administrative machine and a -sound financial system. The one is essential to the other. It has been pointed opt that the larger the area the more equal the distribution of the burden. On the other hand if all the cost is spread over too large an area there is a danger of extravagance, because the people who are spending the money may not feel the burden at all. The conclusion I draw is that the hest system is that which provides for part of the cost to be borne by the locality and part by the State.
But who shall pay—whether the cost is collected wholly or partly by the locality or by the State? Should the cost of roads fall upon the landowner, for without roads his land would practically be of no value or upon the user of the vehicle—for without roads his vehicle would be of no service to him: or upon the general ratepayer or taxpayer withent reference to ownership of land or user of the roarf?
Classification.
A proper system of road classification is essential to any sound system of highway administration. It would appear to be necessary in any sound system of classification to provide for four classes of roads.
Class I.--Lines of main route communication of national im portance connecting principal cities and the pests and settled with due regard to the requirements of the traffic and commercial and military interests. These may be called either " main " or " national " or " trunk " reads.
Class IL—Secondary roads, viz., roads connecting main roads, or connecting towns and villages with the main ruads (Class I) and which may he called either " county " or "de. partmental " or " provincial " roads or similar term.
Claes, Ht.—Local roads, including streets in towns and roads in country districts which have isterest only to local inhabitants, but which require creeineering skill to maintain them up to the required standard of efficiency. These may he called " district roads," "local roads," " communal roads," " town streets," or any similar appropriate term. Class IV.--Tvacks, rights of way, bridle paths, and other means of communication over which the public have the right of travel but which are not used by motor traffic and which do not require engineering skill to maintain them. The responsibility for the maintenance of Classes I II, and HI should be in the hands of a competent authority with the :proper organization for maintenance. Class IV can he left in the hands of minor authorities such as parish councils and councils of small districts who have no engineering organization. In the United Kingdom the classification of roads is notoriously defective, and the need for classification hail been asserted again and again by every official iequiry into the subject. In the paper from the United Kingdom extracts are given from the Royal Commission on Local Taxation, and the
Departmental Committee on Highways, and the Joint Select Committee on Local Government and Financial Adjustment, all emphasizing the need for a proper classification of the roads in England and Wales. The Local Legislation Committee of the House of Commons have since made a similar demand which has also received the influential support of the County Councils' Association. All those who are interested ire read adminietratinn in the United Kingdem hope that this classification will be undertaken at an early date as a preliminary to any modifications in the present system by which roads are maintained and financed in the United Kingdom. In the course of my visit to the United States and Canada it was impressed upon me very strongly that it was very important that any system of classification of roads should be carried out by some authority independent of all political infinance and not directly subject to any popularly-elected body.
Organization of Staff.
It has already been suggeated that. the system of road organization adopted in any country can be tested by seeing whether it succeeds in providing a competent staff. *The staff for an efficient road service may be classified as (1) administrative; 12) accounting ; (3) engineering and (41 outside road staff.
It has already been pointed out that the reason why small authorities fail as road authorities i8 that they are unable to pay a proper salary to their engineer. It is also a fact that they are even more unwilling to provide him with adequate assistance in the way of an accounting and clerical staff. The result is that the engineer to a mall road authority has not infrequently to spend time during which he ahoulst properly be me upied on his en aineering duties in performing clerical and accounting work. It is therefore a proposition of general application that the smallest local unit that can be safely (70117 atituted a road authority must be one that can provide an adequate administrative, accounting, and engineering staff, and within certain limits it is a self-obvious proposition that the larger the area the naive etamomicel are the results obtained.
Training and Recruiting of Engineering Staff.
The increasing use of the road has added dignity and importance to those who are engaged in its f) dministration, and dountless the question of providing fur a constant supply of adequately-trained engineers will receive its due consideration in professional circles. But the engineering organizations must be helped by road adminstrators seeing that adequate sum* are paid to road engineers so as to attract of the best in the engineering profession, In France, Belgium, and Gerinauy the organization for road engineers appeats to he much better than in the United Kingdom. the tidied States, or Canada. An examination of the systems adopted in these Continental countries may be of assistance to countries where road engineering appointments depend upon the frequently unsatisfactory decisions of small local authorities.
En England there are at the present time 62 county surveyors receiving salaries varying from £250 pee annum to £2000 per ain um. the average sum paid probably being between 2500 and 8600 a year. There ere 636 rural district surveyors receiving salaries varying from £60 to .£500, the average probably being about £250 a year. In many cases these surveyors are not provided with technical or clerical aesistance.
There is no doubt that the present system 0f recruiting, appointing and promoting road engineers is far from satisfactory. If the recommendations of the writers of the English paper were carried out it would have the effect of reducing in the number of surveyors but retaining the most competent under greatly-improved conditions. It would have the advantage of considerably improving the status of the profession and attracting into its service the best engineering talent. Taking a typical English county, it is possible to contrast in the following table the position which would exist if these changes were made:—
£5200 Roadmen.
After the supply of competent engineers, the supply of competent road foremen and men in charge of steam rolling and resurfacing gangs is of prime importance to the adequate maintenance of the roads. One of the chief disabilities under which the United States and Canada are suffering at the present time is the absence of the supply of road foremen, and I am afraid that in consequence a great deal of the very large expenditure they are now incurring is being wasted.
The continental countries are in advance of most of the others in the organization of road men, and it is a question for consideration whether the road corps should not be made a semi-national force. In England that principle has been applied to the police, one-half the cost of their pay and clothing being found by the Government. The gradual disappearance of the waterbound road demands far more skilled workmen to be permanently employed, and it may be necessary to offer higher wages and better conditions of employment in order to secure them. Incidentally, it may be remarked that one of the difficulties that besets small highway authorities, and especially small highway authorities in rnral districts, is the unwillingness to pay a Wage to road men which will compete with the agricaltural wages in the district.
General Conclusions.
1. The system of road administration in any country mast be in harmony with the general system of government prevailing in that country and the political genius of its people. It is impossible, therefore, to lay down any general rule of universal application as to the extent to whirl the road organization of any country should be centralized or decentralized.
2. In countries where maintenance of roads by local authorities has hitherto been the prevailing system the modern engineering problems of road tenstruction raised by the increase of moter traffic are creating a tendency to greater centralization, and it is desirable that there should be a further development of State assistance and supervision. 3. in those countries where centraliaed systems of administration already exist, it is desirable that these systems shall be developed and perfected, 4. A principle that can be laid down as of universal application is, that the unit of highway administration shall he sufficiently large and command sufficient resources to employ and adequately remunerate a competent administrative, engineering, and accounting staff. 5, It is desirable that the engineering staff shall be organized cm a national basis, and shall consist of :— (a) Chief Engineers having jurisdiction over the area which shall be selected as the unit of adminietration; (b) Divisional Engineers in charge of divisions of the unit and responsible to the Chief Engineer. (c) Assistant Engineers recruited by examination from engineering students who have received a practical training following upon a good general education and an engineering education at some recognized engineering school or university.
Promotion shall be by merit.
\V. Rats JEETRiays.