NEW ROADS FOR OLD

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18461, 15 August 1925, Page 5

NEW ROADS FOR OLD

A VISITING EXPERT. pays to build well. A very eminent road construction engineer; Mr E. Parker, formerly' of °ston, 1.5.A., and now of Sydney, arrived from Wellington yesterday and 7 11 lect ure on "Modern Road* Cons ruction" before the members of the nstchnreh Citizens' a r.d Ratepayers" Association on Tuesday night. Mr Parker, in the course of an inw'l*l a representative of : 1 less, ' said the experience or all other parts of tho world was a c t ' a '' s ', tioll fr °m tiie old tvnc of thu l n U u-' !d fnr Wdrawn traffic to prored L rCqU !r Ed to takc motcr trafik ' H.® a process that there fceen VI * any commun ities that had t0 for tho cost out of m ' t enue. It was found that in c„o- • es current revenue was r.iu cient even to keep the old tvpos of road m repair and the metal roads gradually became worse instead of bct--1 he . consequence was that most ton.muniues had to resort to the raising of loans to bring their roads to a , standard suitable for modern traffic I but when once the. work as done the savnirr in subsequent maintenance more than offset the annual charges on tho loans and tho I annual cost to tho city v.\s really 110 m u re than wlic.t it wrss before when expensive maintenance operations were required, payable out of current rates. Same Problems Here. "lhc situation relating to roads so a i S Jr seen in New Zealand," added Mr I arfcer, "is very similar tn that existing in various portions of v-a-nada and tHo 1 nitcd States prior to the advent of the automobile. That is to say, New Zealand has built many miles, ol metalled roads winch were quite sufficient for tho traffic that they were designed to carry. Hie motors, however, are fast wearing them out and unless soni€t-hincr js done to proserve what is left of "them the countrv will bo confronted with the necessity ot entirely reconstructing the roads. In Canada and the States this condition was met by utilising the existing macadam roadways as a foundation for some type of durable wearing surface. "The result was that many thousands of miles of metalled roadwr.y that would have been a total loss Within n few years were under the new treatmenfc converted into first-class highways, and their original cost did not therefore become a loss. ''Of course, the traffic in New Zealand has not yet reached the weight and density of tlmt in either Canada or the States, hut the time is fast coniinp: when, unless nre t.&lren tbring the present highways tn> to a condition that will sustain modern traffic, the money spent on them, in the past will become a total loss. _ "Probably the time has not yet arrived when all the roads of New Zealand require reconstructing with an expensive type of surface, but it certaMy would effect a very great saving if manv of the main roads radiating out from tho larger centres of population were treated in this way."