ALL ABOUT OUR STREETS

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10633, 18 April 1900, Page 6

ALL ABOUT OUR STREETS

NOTHING LIKE TAR. OPINIONS OF THE CITY SURVEYOR. (BT OCR SPECIAL REPORT--.) Ugh t water dripping down your neck, mud splashing up your fcg»; Christchurch on a wet day is tho delight of the boot and umbrella makers, but tbe anathema of most other peoplo. The streets ooze mud that inspires only bad language as a rule, although occasionally a man with a itreet ■weeper has an inspiration to go ont and rake some of it up iv neat rows for people to step in. The rain recalls the fact that the street, aro cajjable of improvement. Three inches of mud over your boots brings it forcibly to mind, awl slipping into the tarred haven of Cashel street after the messy seas of Colombo or High streets, you bles* tho new asphalting scheme of the City Surveyor and pray for more of it. You don't trouble how much it costs or how it's done, all you core about is a decent street to walk over. At tho same -time txiese facts are, or ought to be, interesting to every citizen, especially on a wet day.

There are throe sorts of streets—(l) the ordinary Macadamised street, such as Colombo street; (2) the tarred street, such-as Cathedral square; (3) the asphalted street such as Cashel street. The City Surveyor, in answer to a categorical list of questions, gave some particulars: —"An ordinary road hud down with 2_ inch metal, rolled, blinded and topped off with quarry screenings, costs on an average from £10 to £12 per chain. Of course it depends very much on tho state of tho road and tho height of tho existing crown, as you sometimes require twenty and sometimes forty cubic yards to j the chain. The cost of tarring cathedral fquare after tbe formation has been properly fcroken up and laid down is about l.d per superficial yard, including sand, tar and labour. The sand is the expensive item. Before the end of each summer the square receives a top dressing, which costs Id per yard. In the streets where there is a more direct traffic 1 find it better and cheaper to use quarry screenings or "chips" in lieu of sand, there being a difference of nearly 6s per cubic yard in their prime cost, while the direct traffic very soon cracks op the chips and then the surface of the road settles In a homogeneous mass. It is a great mistake for people to think that a road is a root to carry a weight. The opposite is the fact. It is a roof to keep out tbe water, for if subsoil cannot become saturated and is properly confined it cannot move or cut away by the tr_f_c. Therefore the first object of « road is to keep out surface water _* far as possible. Hence the tar acts as the macintosh coat of a road, but unless the rood is well formed with sufficient crown the coat hi mora a curse than a blessing. Tho third system in use in Caahei street cost rather lew than £20 a chain. The street *nu picked up, the existing metal being carted to streets that were too fiat and only carried a very small amount of traffic and —M then relaid with 2_ inch metal, which had been tarred at the quarry—-at fiAt sight • «C3y thing to do, to actually cart your tar some six miles, mix it with your metal, and then cart it back seven miles, but there aro reaeona for most thing*. The metal is received sharp and dean lroni the crusher, tipped on the platforms, mixed .with tar, tipped into a neap and allowed to Sweeten ior •ome months. Then it is broken down and carted direct to it* destination and tipped in situ. It is not only far better but cheaper than if it were carted to town, stacked in heaps, carted to be tarred, and then when ready carted to the road where it was to be used. Cashel atreet cost less than £20 per chain if the amount of old metal token ot! it is debited to the other streets."

"How long do yon expect such a etreet M Caahel street to lasti"

"It* life as, o| course, problematical. Giving it fair play, such as, for instance, ft coat of tar when it showed eigne of wearing hungry, and providing tnat no gas, Mwers or drama are opened up, I ehould think it .will he perfectly sound, and good in eeven years' time.''

"How doe* it compare with other prooiaaetf'

"It. good qualities remain, to be seen. _<Snre is a faint possibility of its being __ppery in heavy irosts, but nothing like tile wooden blocks of London, and should improve to be so, it will only have the elect of making the traffic walk round the cor■era—a much-desired effect, by the way. As a aanitary process it is equal to, if not superior, to wooden blocks, as it is perfectly _on-_bsorbent, while blocks open with the ■on and neces-arily retain a certain amount of fool matter. Of course, tbe dust fiend on that length will disappear in time, but a. yet we cannot prevent dust from the Lincoln and Riccarton roads poaching on it. Hand carts, with the scavenging boys aad the ordinary gutter sweeping, will be the only daily outlay for maintenano©." "What is your opinion, of what should be dons further than the work already in progress, or completed)" ! *_ooinvidk>as> ,> "said Mr Archer; "everybody wo_H want their particular atreet dime first." "Whs*.is the cost compared with wood pavements and the wearing capacity?" - - "It k absolutely impossiole to dranr com-put-Knur. In the first case, with an uncompleted a«wer scheme, no high pressure water supply, and no etectric wires laid, it ■weald be perfect madness to recommend wooden paving for Ohristch_rch. The block- are f k__ on a coating of concrete, which would be broken through every time • pipe was laid, and the almost absolute im-poJU-biliiy of replacing the excavated material to the same solidity would result in -the streets not being in nice even lengths but marred by bompSt and hollows. Even with the ordinary macadamised roads this la a, constant source ot annoyance. No sooner have the Council completed a length of road ot which we are all proud than along comes the Gas Company to make a cnonectk- or two, or somebody wants to connect with the sewer, and the road is

practically spoilt for weeks to come. The cost of wooden pavement ia very large, and I doubt „ it could be dona hero "much under £800 per chain, but then it ehould last for twelve or fourteen year., and tbe cost of renewing would he confined to the wooden blocks alone."

"Where can a continuous supply of metal be best obtained, and is it feasible to train ft to townr It w*s a, great ©Tersight in tbe early (faye that the city did not have a site reserved em the Port Hills and thus quarry, cmb, tram or cart ft* own metal, but at the present time metal can be got from some lour or five private companies at a Very reasonable figure, which could be still further reduced by reducing the cost of carriage. Although this is low, it might be _t_l lees with a prop-fly arranged light line or tramway." It is evident from Mr Archer's remarks that asphalted streets are the cheapest in the long run. Summer showed ns that they were tbe least dusty in * nor'-wester, and day* like yesterday have proved them the drytst in wet weather.