On the earth roads a hard surface crust is made by mixing sand and earth with water and then tamping the mixture with rammers. On the metalled roads the consolidation is done by the District Board's two six-ton steam rollers or by hand rollers of from two to three tons. Material is supplied, and generally spread, by contract, but the latter work is not popular and is only taken up as a necessary adjunct of a contract to supply. Petty repairs are done departmentally. Road maistries are posted to every sixteen miles of road and daily labour is obtained when necessary. Gang coolies are not employed. Avenue coolies are entertained to tend the nurseries and the young trees by the road-sides. The superior establishment consists of the District Board Engineer, two Assistant Engineers, five overseers and nine sub-overseers.
The usual grant for the maintenance of the roads is some Rs. 85,000. The minimum and maximum allotments per mile are Rs. 50 and Rs. 300 respectively; and the average for metalled roads is about Rs. 110. The above figures include Bhadráchalam; but that taluk has since been excluded from the operation of the Local Boards Act, and in future its roads will be managed by the Divisional Officer at Bhadráchalam.
In the delta there are few bridges. This fact, and the reason for it, are referred to as follows by Mr. Walch1[1] : —
'There is probably no artificial irrigation and navigation system, except perhaps the neighbouring one of the Kistna, in which the provision of bridges per mile of canal and channel is so small as in the Gódávari delta.2[2] This has arisen from the fact that when the works were commenced, and for long after, there was not a single made road in the delta, and the people were accustomed to wade through the streams and water-courses which crossed their path-ways, or when the water was too deep for wading to use dug-outs or rafts . . . . Bridges have however been provided over the tailbays of almost all the locks, and of late years a few have been constructed at other places at the expense, or partly so, of local funds.'
Matters have been considerably improved recently. In the delta, on the main roads, bridges have now been built over all waterways except the actual branches of the Gódávari. The minor roads, however, have received much less attention.
Outside the delta, also, some fine bridges have been built in recent years. Of these, that at Yerravaram, which carries Bridges.
