San Francisco County
Biographies
ARTHUR E. LODER
LODER, ARTHUR E., Civil Engineer, Division Engineer State
Highway Commission, San Francisco, Cal.,
was born at Coshocton, Ohio,
in 1881, the son of Isaac Loder and Mary E.
(Baughman) Loder.
He married Aimee Comstock Strecker, November
19, 1909 in Peoria, Ill. He has won for himself recognition as one of
the leading road-builders of America. He is the pioneer user, on a large scale, of
the oiled macadam road surface in the West to give promise of success for
automobiles. It promises to
revolutionize highway construction in the United
States.
He
was given a good education. Attended the
common schools of Worthington, Ind.,
graduated from high school, and then entered Purdue
University, Indiana. He took a course in civil engineering, and
graduated with the degree that gave him title of Civil Engineer, with the class
of 1904. He sought practical experience
as well as school training, and even before his graduation spent two seasons as
an assistant engineer of maintenance on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Pittsburg
and Connellsville, Pa.
After
graduation he took a position under the civil service in the U. S. Office of
Public Roads at Washington, D. C., and for three years was first assistant
engineer in charge of construction of government roads throughout the Middle
West and Northwestern states.
He also did considerable road and park building at the national capital
and in the State of Virginia, including boulevards for the Jamestown Exposition
at Norfolk, Va. While in the government
service he was chosen to make preliminary surveys and estimates for a system of
roads, trails and bridges through the Grand Teton forests in Jackson
Hole, Wyo. He won, while with the government an enviable
reputation as a road and boulevard engineer, and, as a
consequence, in 1907 was chosen Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles County
Highway Commission. His work in that
position was notable.
It
was while in that position that he pioneered his new form of pavement, building
the first improved motor roads in the county, roads that are playing a most
important part in the development of that section of Southern California,
Because they make accessible to tourists every day in the year the scenic
attractions for which that section is famous.
He served four years under two highway commissions and three boards of
supervisors, and under their direction built 300 miles of paved highway which
cost $3,500,000.
In
this work he installed and operated successfully one of the first large county
rock crushing plants in America,
producing rock at a cost considerably less than private quarries. He also caused the leasing for ten years of
another quarry on most favorable terms.
One leading achievement of his administration was the building of
Newhall tunnel, a concrete lined highway tunnel through the summit of the Santa
Susanna mountains at the old San
Fernando Pass. At the end of his second term, in July, 1911,
he resigned from his position as chief engineer of the Highway Commission of
Los Angeles to conduct a private business as civil and consulting
engineer. He was appointed consulting
engineer of the United States Office of Public Roads, Washington, D. C., to
prepare government publications on roads, pavements, and rock production. After California
appropriated $18,000,000 for the construction of paved roads to cover the
entire State, he was chosen division engineer of the State Commission, with
headquarters at San Francisco. He assumed this office Jan. 1, 1912. He is destined to play an important part in the
construction of one of the greatest systems of highways ever built in ancient
or modern times.
He
is a member of the Engineers and Architects’ Association of Southern
California.
Transcribed by Betty Vickroy.
Source: Press Reference Library,
Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
285, International News
Service, New
York,
Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Betty Vickroy.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library