The Evening Standard

WILL BUILD ROADS IN SOUTHERN UTAH

Salt Lake. Dec. 18.-It is evident that the law passed by the legislature last spring, authorizing the use of convict labor on the construction of state roads, has opened the way for the speedy completion of the system of highways which will, in time, connect the principal cities and localities of the state with the Colorado roads.

Though the plans for the coming season have not been completed, it is certain that much work has been laid out which, if completed, will add many miles of fine roads to the state system by the end of the season.

Tomorrow a party of twenty-five or thirty convicts will be taken to Washington county, where they will be put to work on the thirty-mile stretch of road running between St. George and Bellevue. Climatic conditions in the southwest corner of the state make the work practicable at this season, and as much of the road will be completed as possible before summer, when the gang of convicts and the teams, augmented in numbers, probably will be transferred to another locality in the northern part of the state to complete the work on the more important portions of the system.

The work to be done on the road between St. George and Bellevue will be mostly in the nature of grading, improving the drainage and building culverts and small bridges. These will be built of corrugated iron for the most part

As planned, the road system of Utah should, on completion, be unsurpassed by that of any other state in the Union. From north to south the road will run as nearly straight as is consistent with the plan to include on it all the important towns and cities within range.

From the main road will run branches to all corners of the counties through which it passes.