Minnesota Highways, May 1952

              mm
mMmam
VOL.  1, NO. 7
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
MAY,   1952
High Water Causes Highway Havoc
State Stamps "Paid Up" On $111,000,000
Of Early Day Debt For Road Building
wk
srgrt AUPToa
STATE T««ASURER
APR-8 1952
136683
T«l Biomaaj, state TrwUHmsr
Stato Oapltol
"t-S-Sa     1 wan wmm> ram mmum & 00/100
£$M AaprovW—Voudi*r *i*.
^^f^SiBf^f^^-
Writing Highway History by paying off the last $658,125
installment of Minnesota's $111,000,000 bonded indebtedness
for early day trunk highway construction are this group of
state officials, gathered about Governor C. Elmer Anderson.
The checks for $650,000 in principal and $8,125 in interest
were signed by State Treasurer Val Bjornson, standing, and
State Auditor Stafford King, seated, at the right in the picture.
At the left are Highway Commissioner M. J. Hoffmann (standing) and Vice President M. Joseph Conway, First National
Bank of St. Paul, who received payment for the bondholders.
May 1, 1952, will go down in Minnesota history as the day motorists finished paying the last bonded debt for the Trunk Highway system
they have been using, with varying degrees of benefit and satisfaction,
for over 30 years—and then asked themselves "But where do we go
_faa^khere?"
—/J.'he 1952 and final payment, made by State Treasurer Val Bjornson, was relatively small—$650,000 in principal—(Continued on page 6)
New techniques, the results of years of experience, paid
off for maintenance crews as Minnesota flood waters menaced
many highways. Engineers located in districts threatened by
floods were prepared to battle high waters; but the rapid rise
of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers several feet over highs
predicted by army engineers and meteorologists placed terrific loads on operating personnel.
Three flooded areas were visited by MINNESOTA
HIGHWAYS staff to get first-hand pictures of preventive
measures. One of these was a stretch of TH 100, the west approach to the Rock Island Railroad bridge at Inver Grove.
With an emergency situation declared by Commissioner M.
J. Hoffmann, what was to have been a protective dike turned
out to be a permanent construction job.
River ice was about seven feet
below the highway grade. Anticipating the rise of water a dike
was placed on the north shoulder
protected by glass-kraft paper and
snow fencing. But flood waters
neared the top of the roadbed at
an increasing rate, indicating that
a simple dike would be only a
temporary and probably inadequate
stop-gap.
Just Plain Paper
Wrapped Up Flood
A new road material was added
to the various maintenance tools
this year, just plain sheets of paper, laid down along slopes of
shoulders and dikes to minimize
erosion and other damage.
The material is a laminated
sheet, composed of two layers of
heavy kraft paper bonded together with an asphaltic filler reinforced with spun-glass fibers. This
came in six and eight foot rolls,
ample widths for adequate handling.
Paper was used in several different locations by maintenance engineers, each in a slightly different
manner. Along TH 100 at Inver
Grove, HMMen had a bit more
time to spare than in other spots.
Here the first layer of paper was
laid down and supported by snow
fence at a level which later was
almost eight feet under water. Two
more layers were overlapped above
the first along the slope, again protected by snow fence. To prevent
Paper   (Continued on page 2)
Flood   Pics,   Pages  4  &   5
It was decided that the proper
solution would be to reconstruct
the grade to a point well above the
present highest level of the river.
The hope was that such measures
would provide a permanent protection against future floods that
seemed to be following a pattern
of being more destructive each
year.
Trucks, graders and a shovel
went into action as a maintenance
crew under the direction of M. L.
Jones, St. Paul Park, began the
construction of a new grade which
would raise the level of the road
almost five feet, 13 or 14 feet
above normal river level.
Essential traffic, as well as
thousands of nuisance sight-seers,
crossed this bridge because flooded streets closed the Robert and
Wabasha street bridges in St. Paul.
By alternating the work on the
lanes, building about a foot at a
time on each half, traffic stoppage
was kept at a minimum.
Over 6,000 yards of gravel and
dirt were hauled from St. Paul
Park to build up 800 feet of the
roadway to a 24 foot width. A
protective wall of rock and stones
was placed along the shoulder,
and will be extended along the
roadway, to prevent further scour
along the side channel. Shoulders
and oil surfacing were done while
the bridge was closed for repairs.
Work was progressing at a favorable pace when it was noticed
that the mid-section of the wooden approach that curves up under
Water    (Continued on page 6)