Since the coming of spring weather, March 28th to be exact, the Cabarrus county highway commission has been putting in some good work. It has constructed an average of over a mile of topsoil road each week and in addition to this maintained the hundreds of miles of roads in the rest of the county.
The contrast between the present method of road building and the old is striking. Where 17 miles of road have been built in 14 weeks, under the old system about 6 miles a year was constructed. The old roads were constructed, seemingly, so as to give the greatest possible amount of curve, which may account for some of the time taken in construction.
The greater part of the road built is in the northeast section of the county. Fourteen miles have been built on the Gold Hill road and on roads leading form it. The other road has been built in the lower edge of the county in and around Georgeville.
A trip with the county engineer, W.G. Brown, was found by a representative of The Tribune to be not only interesting but very instructive as well.
On leaving Concord, the Gold Hill road was soon reached after traversing the hard surface between Concord and Mt. Pleasant for several miles. A top soil was being put down at the time in the section near St. Martins Catholic Church. The road was changed from a country trail to a first class highway of 30-foot width. On several hills, the soil in the cuts were being used to get the sand for the surface to place on the natural red clay base.
Some distance out from Concord, the first turn from the Gold Hill road was made. Her a road has been constructed from the Gold Hill highway which will lead into the old Salisbury road which leaves Concord at East Depot street. The new road takes the place of the old trial, which was formerly in such a bad condition that during a great part of the winter no automobiles were able to traverse it on account of the danger of being stuck.
As far as Barrier school has been finished, and only a half mile more is needed to complete this piece of road which will be used as an artery to the two main roads. Very good crops may be seen in this section of the county and recent rains have given the territory a greener appearance than other parts of the county has.
Turning back to the Gold Hill road and riding a distance of a mile on it, another new road is discovered. It is a cross country highway leading to the Mt. Pleasant hard surface road by way of St. Johns. All of it has been completed, and as in the case of the road by Barriers school, it opens some very pretty country to motorists who care to drive in that direction.
A very pretty drive could be suggested to those who are not acquainted with the country, which would give them a view of some of Cabarrus county’s prettiest territory and at the same time give little or no trouble in finding the way. The suggested drive would be to follow the Mt. Pleasant road to St. Johns and after turning off there to follow the left hand road until it intersects with Gold Hill road some three miles from the church, turn to the left and follow it into Concord.
Other drives are just as pretty and, to persons who are fond of exploring, it would be well worthwhile to try some of Mr. Brown’s roads in the northeast part of the county.
Incidentally, it may be noted that St. Johns Church is at a very traveled place, roads leading from it into four directions, three of them being separate highways.
After retracing steps to the Gold Hill road again, and continuing on toward Watts Crossroads, more new and very easy to travel road is encountered. Especially noteworthy in tis sector of highway is the place at the creek which formerly was standing in water during the greater part of the year. At this point a fill has been constructed so as to ensure the road being above the high water mark and a large iron bridge has been placed over the stream.
It is interesting to note that the bridge was one which for years spanned Cold Water Creek on the Mt. Pleasant highway. It was lifted bodily and transplanted to its new position, after having been presented to the county by the State highway commission. George Brown, who has charge of the county bridge work, performed the operation of grafting it form one road on to another.
Another bridge was moved by George Brown from the position on a small creek to upstream for several hundred feet to a new location in record time. It was the only way for the farmers in the vicinity to get to town, and there had been a lot of grumbling about how they were going to be held up for a week. Just to show them what he could do when he tried, George Brown pushed the whole thing upstream and set it down in the new location in less than a day, much to the astonishment of all the natives.
The hill at Watts Crossroads is being cut down and work is being done completing the relocation of the old Salisbury-Monroe road which cuts the Gold Hill road at this point. This road is now almost finished and joins with a modern topsoil road which leads on into Salisbury. The road there has a different aspect from the other roads in the county. Where the greater part of the county has a rolling terrain, with the highways gently dipping and then rising again, the road at this point looks like it might be in the eastern part of the state. It is level and swampy and has to be carefully ditched to prevent it from becoming miry.
From Watts Crossroads to Mt. Pleasant, the highway is in process of construction. Only about 1 ½ miles has been completed. Tractors and teams are engaged in removing the undergrowth and in getting the land ready for being worked up into a road. The tractors first go through and remove all the very heavy stumps and large roots. Then the teams remove the smaller stuff. The steep hills and winding roads which formerly made the road hazardous have been avoided by making the road straight.
After leaving Mt. Pleasant, the old Salisbury-Monroe road is again traversed entering the new highway near Georgeville. Of chief interest in this road is the work now being done on the hill at St. Martins Church. When excavations which are being made are complete, the hill will have no terrors for the motorist. It will be only an average hill. The top of two hills are being cut off, one for eight feet and one for 11, and the earth secured is dumped into the intervening space. Two tractors, one 60-horsepower and one 30-horsepower, are used in the work as well as 10 teams of horses.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Friday, July 17, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-07-17/ed-1/seq-1/
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