Minnesota Highways, March 1953

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VOL.  2,  NO.  5
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
MARCH, 1953
Engineers Attend Annual Conference
1953  Maps  Ready
Being distributed now is perhaps the most popular and
effective single item in the Department's public relations
activities—the new state highway map for 1953.
Culminating long months of planning and work, the latest
edition is now rolling off the presses of Harrison-Smith, Min-
4fc (lis printer, and being delivered to (he Central Office as
rapidly as possible.
The production of the 250,000
maps bad iis beginning just about
a year ago when Phil McCauley
and Elmer Erkkila started preliminary work on several proposed
art work schemes and improvements, which they had already
been mulling over for several
months. Elmer developed several
of the suggestions, finishing them
in suggested colors as they might
appear on the cover of the map.
One of these was selected as being the one to be used on this
year's production and then Elmer
put the finishing touches to it so
that it looked almost identically
like the drawing of the capitol you
see on the map.
A general plan for the back of
the map was then decided upon
^^.kHclir 1 mil. Ill response to
[S^P^lai demand it was decided
that a mileage chart should again
be included, so these figures were
compiled and checked. Several
hundred color photos were studied
before the eight typical Minnesota
scenes were decided upon. The
map of the United States, showing the principal highways, also
had to lie drafted, as were the
maps of the 16 cities and villages
of 10,000 to 100,000 population.
In much of this preliminary work,
the Photo Lab was very helpful
and   cooperative.
Errors   Can   Happen
On the hue of the map, changes
in alignment and surface had to
be shown and any errors which
had not been caught in the previous   year's   map   were   corrected.
(Continued   on   page  4)
Preliminary Work
Begun For New
Highway Building
Appointment of commissioners to appraise damages
to present owners of property
in the site proposed for the
new Highway Department's
central office building will be
asked in a St. Paul district
court hearing April 11.
The state, the Capitol Approach
Commission announced, early this
month started proceedings for
condemnation of land southwest
of the state capitol in an area almost directly south of the present
state office building. Notices of
condemnation have been turned
over to Ramsey county sheriff's
deputies for service on 123 persons
and corporations now holding title to or residing on land in the
site involved.
The area generally is bounded
by Rice street on the west, Fuller
on the north, Park and St. Peter
on the east and Central Terrace on
the south.
Preliminary, tentative plans call
for the construction of a building
large enough to house all of the
now widely-dispersed central office activities, plus two parking
lots, each of which will accommodate some 100 cars.
Actual construction on the new
building is not expected to begin
before the latter part of 1955.
The annual conference of the Department's project engineers was held February 22 through 25 at the Saint Paul
and Lowry hotels, with some 85 field men in attendance at
the sessions. Also present were representatives of the Bureau
of Public Roads and county highway engineers, as well as
central office and field personnel of the Department.
C. L. Methven, construction engineer, was chairman of the conference, which was acclaimed by
all who attended as one of the
best and most informative ever
put on by the Department.
In order to facilitate the presentation of the great amount of information which was included in
the program, the attending project
engineers were divided into four
groups, with each group devoting
half a day to each of four general
torjics.
Two district engineers were in
charge of the discussion for each
group, with their assistant engineers serving as discussion leaders.
Group 1, headed by P. D. Mold
and H. A. Pabst, started out the
conference   with   a   discussion   of
Ya'e Offers Aids for
Traffic Engineering Study
Yale University again announces
that fellowships and scholarships
are available for graduate study
in the field of traffic engineering
during the school year of 1953-54.
The course of graduate study
and research is open to men who
have received a degree in engineering from an accredited college. Nine fellowships are made
available by the Automotive Safety Foundation and one by the
Rand McNally company. Each is
worth  approximately  $1,400.
Highway employees interested
in applying for these fellowships
should contact the Director of
Personnel, through regular channels, at once, inasmuch as the closing date for applications is June 1.
(Continued  on  page  3)
GIVE TO FIGHT CANCER — President Dwight D. Eisenhower points
out one of the ways to control cancer is to give to the American
Cancer Society. During April, which the President proclaims as
Cancer Control Month, volunteers raise funds for a program to
help save 70,000 lives from cancer in 1953.