For co-operation on Post and Forest Road Projects, a total of $325,000.00 of County Funds have already been pledged. Of this amount $155,000.00 will be expended under State supervision, and $170,000.00 under Federal Government supervision. CONSTRUCTION WORK BY STATE FORCES While the major part of the work supervised by the State Highway Department is handled under the contract system, it has been found to be good business for the Department to go into competition with contractors and where satisfactory bids are not received to proceed to handle the work with State forces. During 1917 and 1918, the Department handled in this manner the construction of 45.5 miles of macadam surfacing, 3.0 miles of concrete paving, and 27.3 miles of grading. Although war conditions prevailed during the past year and every possible obstacle had to be surmounted, the work done with State forces made a creditable showing when compared with cost plus and contract jobs. Especially is this true of paving work where a comparison of costs with bid prices show a very substantial saving to the State, as illustrated by the following table: ===================+======+==========+==========+===========+========== |Length| Prelimi- |Cost Based|Actual Cost|Saving to | in | nary | on Lowest| With State| State | Miles| Estimate | Bid Price| Forces | | | of Cost | | | -------------------+------+----------+----------+-----------+---------- Sheridan Paving | 2.2 |$42,535.50|$52,438.00|$40,065.61 |$12,372.39 Ashland Hill Paving| .8 | 16,962.00| 19,858.66| 15,908.03 | 3,950.63 +------+----------+----------+-----------+---------- Total | 3.0 |$59,497.50|$72,296.66|$55,973.64 |$16,323.02 -------------------+------+----------+----------+-----------+---------- Highway construction by the State Highway Department with its own forces has its limitation, however, in spite of the fact that it is often possible to do work at less cost than by contract. The Oregon State Highway Department is by law and of necessity an engineering organization and, in order to have the best success in handling construction work, it is necessary to have a distinct organization. In the hiring of men for handling such construction, it is necessary for the State to compete with contractors for the higher priced and more experienced men, and the contractor is often in a position to offer more salary than the State. Furthermore, it is necessary for the State to carry large quantities of expensive equipment which is idle at least a part of the year, and, in fact, the amount of equipment necessary to handle all of the State work by force account would represent too large a portion of the year's available money for road work.