Highway 86

City Is Making Much Progress in Campaign for Road Improvement

[Special to The Times-Dispatch]

Danville, Va., July 29 [1909] -- Danville is keeping pace with other cities in Virginia and North Carolina in the improvement of the public roads, and considerable work is in progress now and more contemplated on the various highways leading into the city.

At a meeting of the board of directors of the Caswell County Macadam Road Company, held here yesterday, it was decided to start work as soon as possible on the construction of the new road from Yanceyville, N.C., to Danville, a distance of nearly fourteen miles. The Caswell County Road Company will build as far as the Virginia-North Carolina line, a distance of about eleven miles, and Danville, by an agreement, will build to the State line, a distance of about three miles beyond the corporate limits. A committee has been appointed with full authority to act for the road company, and to award the contract. The City Council at the next regular meeting is expected to make the appropriation for the building of Danville's part of the road. The construction of the Danville-Yanceyville road will cost approximately $40,000.

The contract for the completion of the new macadam road from New Design to Pleasant Gap, Pittsylvania County, a distance of about five miles, has been relet to J. T. Bennett, contractor. Haymes Brothers, who originally had the contract, have been released by the Board of Supervisors of the county, and the new contractor will begin at once the work at the point where left off by the original contractors. A force of about forth convicts, who have been engaged in building the road, will continue at the work. This road is a continuation of the macadam road recently built from the corporate limits on the north side of Danville to New Design, and the total length will be about ten miles.

The Commercial Association and the City Council are both alive to the necessity of improving the roads, and are lending every encouragement to this end. At the bond election to be held here on September 28 the citizens will vote on the proposed expenditure of $65,000 for the improvement of the streets in the West End, $25,000 for a new bridge across Dan River and $10,000 for the street improvements in the north side of the city. The West Main Street section was only recently annexed to the city.

Source: The Times-Dispatch (Special to the Times-Dispatch) (Richmond, Virginia), 30 July 1909, Page 3.