The State Highway Commission on June 29, 1917, let a contract to the Warren Construction Company for paving a ten mile section of the Wild Horse Road northeast of Pendleton and one mile of the Old Oregon Trail leading west from Pendleton. The pavement laid was bitulithic and the subgrade was an old macadam road built by the County. The macadam road was of insufficient width for supporting a 16 foot pavement, which condition required widening of the grade, re-ditching and the placing of extra crushed rock for base.
The widening of the road bed was done with County funds expended under the direction of the State Highway Department. The work of widening the grade cost the County, $9,975.00 for the 11 miles.
ON THE PAVED ROAD BETWEEN PENDLETON AND ADAMS IN UMATILLA
COUNTY. PAVED IN 1917
Paving work begun in July, 1917, and an excellent pavement of the standard two-inch bitulithic type was secured, with a six inch crushed rock base. The total cost of this work was $162,626.56 or $14,784.22 per mile. M. O. Bennett was the engineer in charge and Chas. Noble was the inspector on this work. Following is a detailed cost statement:
DETAILED COST STATEMENT—WILD HORSE PAVING
| Standard Bitulithic Pavement, 103,543.79 sq. yds. at $1.29 | $ 133,571.49 | |
| Broken Stone loose measure. 10,994.8 cu. yds. at $1.87 | 20,560.28 | |
| Crushed stone. 115,600 lin. ft. at 5c | 5,780.00 | |
| Extra work on road approaches | 104.91 | |
| $ 160,016.68 | ||
| Engineering and Inspection | 2,609.88 | |
| Total | $ 162,626.56 | |
Wild Horse Grading
When plans were made in 1917 for the Wild Horse paving. 16 feet was the width decided upon. Upon investigation it was found this would require widening of the old road bed from one foot to five feet, re-ditching for a large part of the 10 miles and the replacing of several culverts.