The Augusta Courier

Ellis Arnall Establishes All-Time Record For Construction of Rotten Highways

Georgia's "Shame" Wrote His Deception Even in State Roads With Sham Paving

Ellis Arnall established a record in building rotten roads. M. E. Too is following the precedent established by his old master Ellis. Thrown in with the training he received under Ellis Arnall, M. E. Too has the benefit of the aid and counsel of Ed Rivers, who was also a master at building cheap shoddy and rotten roads. The limestone rock gang is running wild under the domination of Ellis, Ed and M. E. Too and from one end of this state to the other they are building cheap, rotten and shoddy roads.

But to cap the climax and standing out as the most flagrant example of all these rotten roads is the road from Sylvania in Screven County to Statesboro in Bulloch County. The end of the road from the Ogeechee River to Sylvania is the shoddiest piece of work ever foisted on the people of Georgia.

This reporter had the privilege of riding over this piece of road on the afternoon of Thursday, April 15th, and believes that the people of Georgia are entitled to a report on its condition.

This road was completed and opened to travel in October, 1946, and now in April approximately sixteen months later the road is full of holes, is unraveling, is breaking up, is fast deteriorating and the service stations in Sylvania for the past months have maintained a regular wrecker service for pulling automobiles and trucks out of the mud where they were getting stuck on little Ellis' paved highway. And, this is one road where they are patching and repairing the pavement with mud and sand out of the ditches along the road.

And this road was not washed away by the floods. The road bed was perfect and the drainage was perfect. It is a case of rotten pavement.

To give an illustration notes were made as we rode along the road and here is just a sample of what we found:

(1) A distance of 75 feet where the pavement and paving material had completely disappeared and there was nothing but mud and clay. An observer now could not even tell that any paving material had ever been put there. No sign could be found as to what had become of it and there are indications that it sunk clear to China.

(2) A short distance further 150 feet were missing. At this point your reporter got out of the car and tried to determine what kind of material was put there. On the edges where the pavement was broken up there appeared to be about an inch or an inch and a half of little rock that somebody had spewed a little asphalt into. It was breaking and unraveling and the 150 foot gap was rapidly increasing.

(3) 150 feet of road from which all of the paving had disappeared.

(4) 200 feet of the road where all of the paving had disappeared.

(5) 400 feet where the paving material had completely disappeared.

These figures give you an idea of the condition of this road. At each of the above places enumerated the State Highway Department had erected large signs beside the road in red and black letters on a white background reading as follows: "Danger Broken Pavement Ahead".

In addition to all this the road from Sylvania to the Ogeechee River is full of holes, is fast breaking up, is raveling away and if it continues to deteriorate for the next two or three months as it has in the past few months the paving material will completely disappear.

This road is built through one of the most beautiful sections of Georgia. There are rolling hills with a view of fertile fields and stately pines with the South Georgia wiregrass underneath. It is in a section where there are the finest of local materials. Most of the soil is red pebbly soil which makes one of the finest foundations for a road.

The people in Sylvania told us that the State Highway Department started patching the holes in this road and started repairing it even before the contractor had completed the road in October, 1946.

This road has now gone to pieces and wreckers are pulling cars and trucks out where they are getting stuck in the middle of the paved road.

This road is a fine illustration of the rotten roads that Georgia has been putting down and the roads that Georgia is now building under the direction of Ellis, Ed and M. E. Too.