MILLIONS UNDERFOOT

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIII, Issue 8683, 10 September 1924, Page 7

MILLIONS UNDERFOOT

COST OF Mil ITAIN'S ROADS

During the past nvrk'c months Britam lias spent more than L'oO.OOd.OOO on roads: that is. tour times as much :e in 1010. Nothing in history is more lernarkable than the tact that, right up to the end of the eighteenth century, the inhabitants ot the British Isles were content with the mis ruble muddy trails which then scr.-cd roads. So ] ;( p as 1 7-hl a carriage eo 11 Id not he driven Iroin Kensington to St. dame's I’alncc in less than two hours- at least, in wet weather, lelt• •i 1 and Macadam have all the credit of British road-making, but >t was ’ll ■ini a' Hu izlies v. bo first built a road of the modern type, with a concrete oS yavd and lime as a fonnda t ion. This is the only type that will stand really heavy trallic; but it is costly. Nowadays, the average road is bottomed with wbat is called ‘ bard < ore," composed ei s l ll l l< ■, brick, or broken concrete laid a foot thick ami rolled down to about nine inches. Macadamised roads did well enough until the present century brought in last motor traffic. In the past twenty years we have seen scores of different materials employed in the endeavour to make- a perfect road. Wood pavement is now almost universal in busy st •■(■fts. The dark red Anstfcralian karri-wood has proved the ■best for the uurpo.se. Tt will last no less than eighteen years, against ten for American pitch-pine, nine for larch, and oulv five to seven for fir. London has led the wav in the matter ot wood paving. In France the authorities are are partial to fpiartz sandstone, which, carefully cut and laid in blocks. Is almost as noiseless' as wood, is loss costly. and has a life of thirty years. Franco lias always been Britain’s great rival in road making. Tt was T ranee who first treated her main roads scientifically with tar preservatives, thereby lengthening their lives and preventing dpst. The wear and tear on roads is almost Incredible. Wood pavement wears down an inch m six years; and the ordinary country highway will lose half an inch a year. Asphalt stands up best, tbe wear being only about one twolftli of an inch yearly. Tn MKM steel blocks were tried for paving- purposes in Bordeaux. A little later similar material was put down in Murray Street. New York, and tests proved that, on a steel road, double the weight could be pulled by the same power as on ordinary stone paving. So far, the best road for heavy traffic is said to be granite, bound together with bitumen and covered with sheet asphalt—-the latter Ibeing a mixture of bitumen and sand. It is elastic, noiseless, durable and sanitary. Rubier paving lias been tried on several occasions, but with varying success.