Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85911
Lattatudes ■ EDITORIAL Editorial Director, Marcia Gruver Doyle, mgruver@rrpub.com Editor-in-Chief, John Latta, jlatta@rrpub.com Executive Editor, Tina Grady Barbaccia, tbarbaccia@rrpub.com Senior Editor, Mike Anderson, mike.anderson@rrpub.com Editor Emeritus, Kirk Landers, kirk.landers@att.net Truck Editor, Jack Roberts, jroberts@rrpub.com Construction Editor, Tom Jackson, tjackson@rrpub.com Contributing Editor, Tom Kuennen, expwys@expresswaysonline.com Contributing Editor, Dan Brown, danbrown4@msn.com ■ DESIGN Art Director, Sandy Turner, Jr., sturner@rrpub.com Graphic Designer, Kristen Chapman, kristenchapman@rrpub.com ■ PRODUCTION Senior Production Director, Mary Springer, mspringer@rrpub.com Advertising Production Manager, Linda Hapner, lhapner@rrpub.com Production Director, Leah Boyd, lboyd@rrpub.com Production Director, Diane Klischer, dklischer@rrpub.com ■ PROJECTS Project Director, Leah Boyd, lboyd@rrpub.com ■ PUBLISHING/ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Senior Vice President / Construction Division, Dan Tidwell Executive Publisher Construction Division, Michael Porcaro Executive Publisher Construction Division, Joe Donald Controller, Paige T. Fair, pfair@rrpub.com ■ ADVERTISING SALES Listing on page 43 ■ CIRCULATION Circulation Director, Stacy Stiglic, sstiglic@rrpub.com ■ HONORS 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award Winner Three-time Jesse H. Neal Awards Finalist Boger Award Honorable Mention Richard E. Lowell President's Award Multiple ASBPE Awards ■ Des Plaines Office 2340 S. River Road, Suite 202, Des Plaines, IL 60018 Phone: 847-636-5060, Fax 847- 636-5077 "MUD, rain and malaria be damned." W I worry sometimes that the public is losing touch with what American road engineers and road builders can do. The Ledo Road builders would tell us, "Hey, you want to know what we can do? Well, this is what we can do!" The Ledo Road was built to supply China during World War Two. The Japanese invasion of Burma in the months after the December, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack had cut off U.S. allies India and China. American forces flew in supplies over the Himalayan Mountains from India, but also decided to build a road. I found a reference to it recently and it made me stop. As we sit in stall mode, e once built a road through Burma's monsoons and mud, malarial mosquitoes, dense jungles and enemy fire, and some of the most hostile terrain road builders ever faced. It began in Ledo, in eastern India. More than 15,000 Americans in uniform were assigned to build the 478-mile road, more than 60 percent of them African-Americans, with the help of 35,000 local people. More than 1,000 Americans died building that road. Few, if any, major roads can have been harder to plan, design, engineer and build. There were no reliable records, maps, statistics, surveys or soil analysis. Aggregate was hard to come by and had to be hauled from riverbeds. Logs were cut and made into bridge or road surfaces. Massive amounts of earth had to be moved. Torrential monsoon downpours destroyed miles of work that had to be redone. Bulldozers cleared lakes of deep sloppy road mud by dragging logs across it. Ledo Road builders bridged 10 major rivers and crossed more than 150 streams. A two-mile wooden causeway traversed one major swamp. Malaria was everywhere. Four-inch pipelines were built as the road progressed, fueling and lubricating the equipment which came from America by sea and unreliable rail. Bulldozers carried welded-on armor plating and a shotgun guard, so close was fighting. The first hundred miles ran through Hell Pass. Steep, high and narrow, the pass road also often fell away into sheer drops into the rainforest on either side. Series of back and forth hairpins were built to carry steep grades, and to run across mountain ridges. 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 Mike Reilly, Chairman, CEO Brent Reilly, President David Wright, Chief Administrative Officer Shane Elmore, Chief Process Officer Linda Longton, Vice President, Editorial In Memoriam: H. Pettus Randall II (1911 - 1971) - Founder H. Pettus Randall III (1945 - 2002) - Chairman www.rrpub.com The road finally linked up to the old Burma Road into China after being built at a mile a day. General Lewis A. Pick, the Virginian in command, called it the toughest job ever given to U.S. Army engineers in wartime. "This road is going to be built," he said, "mud, rain and malaria be damned." This is what we can do. www.BetterRoads.com by John Latta, Editor-in-Chief jlatta@rrpub.com Better Roads March 2012 3