The General Construction company which has the contract for the Gary-Baileytown section of seven miles, has already graded more than half a mile of the roadway through Long lake swamp and will soon be through the worst of the job.

 The big caterpillar tractor-grader is excavating the black soil and sand from the side of the roadway, making a canal which will be two or three miles long.  The roadway is being made twenty feet wide and slag and stone will be placed on the outside of the embankment to prevent erosion and hold the fill in place.

 The ditch or canal on the south side of the roadway may be carried as far as Dune park,¹ giving complete drainage to the entire road from Gary to that point.

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¹The ditch was not even dug as far east as Paul. It was stopped at the old Long Lake train stop, i.e. at the southeast edge of Lake Longinus. In other words the canal only ran through the lake itself. It is still discernible by vegetation not choking it, as opposed to the shallower adjacent water. "Dune park" was a village (within today's city of Portage) where eastern Midwest Steel and the Port of Indiana are now. The north arm of Burns Ditch, which cuts right across the line of the proposed Dunes Highway ditch, did not exist yet. Once Burns Ditch was dug, the proposed Dunes Highway ditch would have dried up, as Burns Ditch is much deeper.

 The official body is touring the state in motor cars, making an inspection of state and federal highways and highway contracts now in progress, including the Dunes highway between Gary and Michigan City.

 The members of the commission, accompanied by A. S. Hess, president of the Dunes Highway association and representing the Good Roads and Automobile bureau of the Gary Commercial club started out this forenoon to make an inspection of the work on Dunes Highway just east of Miller.  The General Construction company of this city has the contract and has already graded about 2,500 feet of this end of the highway.

 The state commissioners will also inspect the work on south Broadway between the township line and Lincoln highway at Merrillville.  State workmen are now erecting a steel bridge across Turkey Creek on this road which is a very important one for Gary.  The commissioners will also inspect the "Ideal Section" of Lincoln highway near Schererville while in the county.

 Highway commissions and road building organizations of other states are writing to the Indiana commission inquiring about the core tester, and it is expected that before long they will be in general use throughout the nation.

 Originally the core tester was intended to cut a small round hole in completed hard surface roads to determine whether the contractor had laid the job according to specifications.

 Now the highway department has discovered a new use for the little machine.  It is now used to explore the rock formations under the surface.

 While the presence of the tester in the state is having a beneficial effect in making contractors more careful about the mixing of concrete for the roads and the laying of the material in required thicknesses, it now appears the tester will find its greatest usefulness in testing bridge foundations.

 The tester was not owned by the state when the underground strata for the foundation of the Hazelton bridge over the White river were explored.  At that time an ordinary well driller was used to ascertain how deep the foundation would have to be in order to stand on solid bed rock.  This system was not satisfactory as the well driller pulverized the stone.  The core tester, however, brings the strata of stone to the top.

 Just recently the core tester was adapted to bridge foundation exploration at the state project across Lost river in Orange county on the Dixie Highway at the edge of French Lick.  This bridge is to weigh 2,500 tons and, therefore, it was necessary to lodge the foundation on bed rock.

 The core tester cost the state highway commission $1,200, and the attachment used for bridge work cost $250 additional.

 The actual amount of saving to the taxpayers of Indiana this little machine will bring about can not be calculated, but it has already paid for itself many times over.

 On the first test on the Lincoln Highway in Lake county, it was found that 1,100 feet of road were not up to specifications.  The concrete slab had been slighted.  On final settlement the highway commission deducted $6,000 from the contract price of the road.  In addition to this a road superintendent and several highway inspectors lost their jobs.

 Naturally these fellows do not like the tester.  And now the highway journals in commenting on the tester declare it is unfair to the road contractor to use one of these infernal little machines on his road unless he is notified in advance that it will be used.

 But this is logic the taxpayer can not understand.

 The grade through the big three-mile swamp just east of Miller will be raised to a heighth of two feet over the original plan and the concrete roadway will be still more heavily reinforced with steel, making it one of the most substantial pavements ever constructed by the state and federal government.

 Alteration of the specifications followed a visit here yesterday of John W. Williams, chairman of the state highway commission, who was accompanied by Commissioner Crawford and Chief Engineer Gray.  The highway commissioners, accompanied by A. S. Hess, president of the Dunes Highway association, made a thorough inspection of the work already done by the General Construction company and entered into an agreement with the contractors to raise the grade to two feet above the contract grade and also to strengthen the concrete pavement by the addition of more steel.

 The contractors will receive an agreed additional sum for the extra work and everything was arranged in a satisfactory manner.

 The muck pockets are to be removed from the right of way and the shoulder of the grade or fill will be made strong as possible.

 There will be no delay in the work which will proceed uninteruptedly until the highway is completed.

 The General Construction company was also authorized to grade and pave the 1,500 feet of roadway at this end of the highway in Miller to a connection with the Gary street system in Miller.

 The contractors were already adding an additional foot to the heighth of the fill and there will be only an additional foot to raise the grade in order to bring it up to the revised specifications.  This, with the extra steel reinforcement, will make a roadway sufficient to bear 20-ton trucks, it is said.

 The General Construction company has already graded 4,500 feet of the road through the big swamp and this grade will be raised an additional foot, bringing it up to the grade of the South Shore interurban line which parallels the highway and which was never overflowed.

 All difficulties were ironed out by the state highway commissioners and there will likely be no more complaints against the alleged defects in the grade which were no fault of the contractors, the commissioners declared.

 The east end of the highway this side of Michigan City is being constructed at a rapid rate, the contractors having laid about 3,000 feet of concrete at that end of the road.  As soon as that section of the highway is completed as far east as the Porter road, it will be opened for traffic and the travel between Gary and Michigan City will go over that part of the new highway.

 The state highway commissioners also inspected the work being done on South Broadway from the township line to Merrillville.  The new steel and concrete bridge across Turkey creek will be completed within 30 days, it was said.

 The state highway commission will on June 23 let the contract for resufacing the road from the township line to Merrillville and that work will be completed shortly after the bridge is ready for traffic.

 The city of Gary or the county will be called upon to place South Broadway from 41st avenue to the township line in good order.  It may be necessary to repave South Broadway for that distance to connect with the state highway at the township line.

 The state highway commissioners are said to be very well pleased at the progress that is being made on the state and federal aid roads in Lake county.

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This page is at https://members.tripod.com/~Ogden_Dunes/duneshwy/dh6.html.

Posted 13th August, 1999. Reposted 13th April, 2004, after being knocked off-line four years ago.