Minnesota Highways, July 1957

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VOL.  6,  NO. 9
1246  University Ave., St. Paul  4, Minn.
JULY,   1957
Maintenance Men
Battle Floods
How Maintenance District 15,
in southwestern Minnesota, hardest hit by the state's mid-June
floods, fought hard and efficiently
to protect and repair innundated
trunk highways and to restore
traffic as rapidly as possible was
described by Ken Pearson, assistant maintenance engineer, on his
return from the Marshall area.
Because of the death June 10
of Roy Gilbertson, District 15
maintenance engineer, Pearson
spent 10 days in the district, directing the flood activity.
Flood waters of the Minnesota,
Cottonwood, Redwood, and Yellow Medicine rivers, fed by their
many fast flowing tributary
streams from the rolling countryside, did an estimated $50,000
_damage to more than 250 miles of
sunk  highways  and  bridges  in
le Marshall vicinity, Pearson reported.
More than 150 regular maintenance men, augmented by 30
emergency employees worked 10
to 16 hours daily, sometimes for
24 hours at a stretch. Thirty
pieces of private road equipment
were rented for use with the district equipment.
Trunk Highway 23 was the
hardest hit, with extensive damage also on T. Hs. 19, 68, 59, 75
and 47 in a 60 mile radius of
Marshall. Some highways were
under six feet of water.
Severe and widespread flood
damage to the highways occurred in the Willmar Maintenance
district, where F. P. Domler,
maintenance district engineer, estimated the total highway damage at between $30,000 and
$40,000.
Like the maintenance crews in
the Marshall district, the 60 men
in the Willmar district put in
long hours, including a couple of
20-hour stretches, Domler reported. Round-the-clock flagman service was provided in dangerous
.reas.
One of the serious damage
spots in district 10, according to
Domler, was a mile and a half
southeast of Montevideo on T. H.
212, where the rushing waters tore
(Continued  on page 3)
•
Highway Department Buys 2 Planes
for Full Time Patrol of Traffic
ADDED URGE TO SAFE DRIVING. The two Highway patrol officers who will
pilot the Highway department's new airplanes are Robert Buckman, at the controls
of one of the new ships, and Edward Sosnoski. Henceforth, would-be traffic law
violators will need to add a periscope to their car's visual equipment to keep track
of the  watchful  patrol officers aground  and  aloft.    Crime  just doesn't pay.
With the purchase by the
Highway department in June of
two large, radio equipped Piper
Cub airplanes, the Highway patrol launched a seven-day per
week aerial patrol of Minnesota
trunk highways.
To spot traffic law violators
and aid in their apprehension, to
assist ground forces in traffic control in holiday and emergency
situations, and to provide other
similar services, the two planes
will both be in operation on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
and heavy traffic holidays. The
two pilots will take their weekly
days off in rotation on other
weekdays.
Assigned to pilot the new
planes were patrol officers Robert Buckman and Edward Sosnoski, both experienced flyers.
They had their first holiday tour
of aerial patrol over the five-day
Independence  day week end.
Major activities of the aerial
patrol officers will include:
Traffic control by spotting and
reporting to patrol cars by radio
the location of traffic congestion
on the highways. . . . Locating
unreported accidents, and stalled
vehicles and other traffic obstructions and hazards. . . . Curbing
speeders and other traffic law
violators by reporting their location and direction of movement.
The planes have space for additional observers besides the pilots, as may be required.
To introduce the new traffic
safety service to the people of
Minnesota, the planes were to
visit each of the patrol's district
headquarters. The planes were
to be open for inspection and
newspapers and radio and TV
stations were to be invited to obtain information for reports on
the  aerial  operations.
Two From Patrol Are
Re-elected to Office
One member and one former
member of the Highway patrol
were among officers recently reelected by the Minnesota Police
and Peace Officers association.
They were Sergeant Chester
O'Toole, stationed at Mankato, as
vice president, and L. O. Thune,
formerly a patrol officer at Pine
City and now a deputy sheriff
there, secretary.
Escape Routes
Marked on Roads
The Minnesota Highway department is cooperating in a new
route marking project of vital
concern to residents of the state
in case of an enemy attack or a
large scale disaster in densely
populated areas.
This is the designation and
marking of evacuation routes
leading from so-called military
target areas.
Signs already have been installed marking 38 evacuation
routes leading from the Twin
Cities for a radius of 25 miles.
The Twin Cities as well as Duluth, are classified as principal
target areas for any enemy attack which might occur. Moorhead and East Grand Forks are
among less critical potential target areas.
The evacuation routes are designated by the Minnesota Survival Plan project, which has offices in St. Paul. The routes extend over U. S., state and county
roads as required for rapid,
large-scale evacuation of people
to safer  areas. When completed,
(Continued on page 6)
Donald Strese of Rosemount, HMM I,
points to the evacuation route marker
he has erected on T. H. 61 between St.
Paul   and   Newport.