NEW NAZI ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 14

NEW NAZI ROADS.

LONDON CRITICISM. GREATER WEAR OH TYRES. DISADVANTAGES REVEALED. The traveller in Germany will, if he goes out of the big towns, find evidence all over the country or great activity in the building of wonderful motor roads without crossings, junctions. level crossings or cyclists to hinder the swift progress of the motorist; roads which are divided in the middle by a strip of grass to prevent any worry from oncoming cars, and 011 each side by a wellmailed line over which only those who are Overtaking may venture without fear orVpenalties; reads oil which one may not stop for a rent or even to take a photograph of the beautiful scenery, magnificent highways of an average width of 78ft. stretching from Berlin to all the groat towns —Konigsberg, Hamburg. Tjeipzig, Cologne, Karlsruhe. Munich, to the Austrian border, and across Germany from Hamburg to Frankfurt. Those who study the German Press will learn that up to the present roads are in use. or have been designed to cover, 3450 kilometres (2100 miles); that 1400 bridges have been commenced or completed, and that eventually there will be on an average one to every 900 yards; that the highest number of those employed on the work at one time in 1933 was 113.139. states an article in the "Motor," London. It is not hard to be impressed by the details and figures of this wonderful work, which when completed will make Germany the easiest country in which to motor at speed. The tourist will, however, be more likely to take in the I magnitude of the task involved in

building these Reiehsautobahnen and to glory in the advantages they will eventually bring when they form part of the projected London-Istanbul Road, than to look int« what is actually going on. Visitor's Impressions. If he takes the trouble to Inquire he will find that there are many disadvantages, both in the present and the future, attached to the Autobahnen. The surface of those portions already completed find open to a traffic has been found by motorists •to wear down tyres more quickly than the ordinary roads; and in Germany the quality of tyres has suffered so severely from the shortage of natural, as opposed to reclaimed, rubber, that this is no small concern to all those who drive cars in the country. The number is steadily increasing both on account of the freedom from taxes on new cars, and because the small man would prefer something tangible to a few savings in the bank or in so-called securities, the value of which he cannot gauge from one week to another. These small new cars are, however, not built for speed and, the powerful cars acting as an incentive to drive at a slightly higher pace than that for which they were built, it was found in the first year that 50 per cent of them broke up eventually by the roadside. The peasant through whose lands the roads are being driven has a greater visible loss than any. He obtains compensation for his fields, but it is land he wants, not money. You cannot farm on money alone, and land is not there ready for buying to make up for what is lost; for land is a surer investment than a bank deposit. The farmer has often to walk many miles from his house on one side of the road to his fields on the other, because no pedestrian may cross the road except , where there'i? a bridge; and his childreir have miles instead of yards to cover between hom£ "and school. Even the strategic importance of the Autobahnen can be exaggerated. The great ; number of bridges makes each road highly vulnerable from thelair. At'JJej-gen, near Traunstein, ■ a huge bridge has been built on three great ■concrete piers. One bomb dropped on the * middle would make repair in time of war a work of the greatest difficulty. Most alarming ef all is the financial position. The firms entering tenders for the construction are so anxious to j get the work that estimates are often too low to cover the cost of building. In the vicinity of one small Bavarian village three firms kave gone bankrupt on one stretch. As one contractor goes out another comes in, without taking over the responsibility of his predeces- , sor. Thus labourers go wageless and the peasants who have contracted to supply incidentals such as horses and wood are unpaid, while the shopkeepers in turn are not paid for the purchases made by the workmen.

An Expensive Whim. /<• A strange and immensely expensive deviation from the route as originally planned for .the Munich-Bad Reichenhall sector has been made to satisfy the whim of the Fuherer. The Romans in building a shnilar road drove it north of the Chiemsee, wtell knowing the impossibility of constructing a highway over the marshes at the south side. The engineers whovdesigned the Autobahnen also planned to go north of the lake, but at the special wish of Hitler the road has been constructed over the swamps at the south; so far unsuccessfully, because no sooner is the road built or rebuilt than it sinks into the morass and the work is started again. This has cost, and is costing, mil* lions of marks. The Autobahnen are t>eTng subsidised by means of a rediscount credit with the Reiohsbank. Although the imports necessary for this work are negligible, it is obvipus that so great an expenditure must put a considerable additional load not' only on the already hardpressed finances of the Government itself, but also on the private economy of the many firms which have been involved in-a loss. It remains to be seen whether the strain will prove in anv way fatal.