bottles and cans, and tons of paper and other

bottles and cans, and tons of paper and other debris. Wray pointed out that while year-around litter expenses rose $15,000 in reaching $813,500 last year, they had increased by more than $130,000 the year before. This slowdown in the rate of increase, at a time of generally rising costs in most operations, apparently results from wider public consciousness of the problem, he said.

“But the collection of litter still costs a very large sum of money every year, these are funds which could be used in a far more lasting way for highway improvements and safety projects,” Wray said. Overall, some 3,000 Highway Department employes using 2,000 trucks, mowers and other pieces of equipment are involved in the statewide spring cleanup. By the time it’s over, they will have worked approximately 120,000 manhours. Aside from collecting litter, Wray said, they also are cleaning signs, sign posts and delineators (the small roadside posts with reflective plates or buttons to help guide motorists). This also is a job of whopping proportions, since there are some 17,000 signs on the interstate system and 225,000 more on the arterial and regular primary system, along with hundreds of thousands of the delineators. General cleanup operations, in addition, include attention to rest areas, waysides and picnic table facilities. Clean and freshly painted barrels for trash disposal will be provided at all picnic areas. Other phases of the spring operations provide for removing advertising signs that have been placed on state right-of-way, and for emphasizing the important safety activity of making roadside shoulders flush with the pavement edge.