Los Banos Rotary Club History
McCanless Tells Of Road Plans

A brief outline of Merced county's extensive road system and a glimpse of the county's road plans for the next few years was presented to members of the Los Banos Rotary Club Tuesday noon by Wm. McCanless, county road commissioner.

In the list of things to come, McCanless told of plans to extend the Turner Island road on through to Merced, not on an airline route, as was planned some years ago, but as a practical farm-to-market road mostly running along section lines and located so as to serve the greatest possible number of farmers. The road will be gradually extended forward during the next several years, and will be built to county standards. When completed it will provide Los Banosans with an alternate route to Merced that will possibly be a bit shorter and with definitely less traffic.

Also in the future planning is the proposed route from Los Banos due north to Turlock. This road, for which there was a wave of enthusiasm several years ago, would serve west siders traveling to Turlock and north on Highway 99, or to Livingston, Delhi, and other points in that area.

During the coming fiscal year, McCanless said, the county will spend approximately $1 ½ million on its road system. Of the total, new primary road construction will amount to $264,988. This will include an allotment of $18,435 for the Turner Island road; further improvement of the Henry Miller road from the Turner Island road intersection east to the river; and a section of the Island road, west of the river and south of Highway 152.

Maintenance on the primary road system will cost some $50,000, and miscellaneous new construction, as yet unclassified, will cost some $25,000, of which approximately $5,000 will be spent in this area. About $60,000 will be spent for new bridges in the primary system.

In the secondary road system, which includes the lateral roads feeding into the primary system, the county will spend some $298,794 on new construction; $195,000 on maintenance; $10,000 for miscellaneous construction; and a number of new bridges, of which one will be a bridge over Salt Slough at Santa Rita, to cost $4,000; and a bridge over the Poso Canal, to cost $2,250.
About $40,000 is allotted for replacement of road building equipment and $36,760.34 for total administration and engineering expense.

McCanless told the group that the entire road program is designed to serve agriculture and that both new roads and maintenance expenditures will be based on road travel and need. Questioned as to if and when the Santa Fe Grade road, from Los Banos south to South Dos Palos, might be constructed, McCanless explained that this road served primarily duck club lands and a few beef cattle ranches, and that though a better road would be desirable its potential use is such that it is far down on the list of future projects.

McCanless said that roads in this immediate area are the most expensive to construct of any in which quickly works up through the gravel road base. Recently, though, they have found that a generous layer of sand under the gravel base prevents the heavy adobe from working up into the gravel, and experimental sections of roads thus constructed have help up surprisingly well. The state is also experimenting with this new type of construction and has found it very satisfactory.

August 15, 1950

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