NEW PAYING.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18591, 16 January 1926, Page 14

NEW PAYING.

MONTREAL TRIES NEW INVENTION. DELIGHT OF MOTORISTS. (from our own correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, December 14. Hundreds of citizens of Montreal watched with interest the operations of a hundred men working on the last stretch of Champ de Mars, laying the final hundred square yards of paving in an innovation in civic road-makng in the City of Montreal. The west end of the old drill ground assumed the appearance and proportions of a manufacturing plaot, with steaming road rollers, puffing trucks, blazing boilers, and' strange-looking "heaters," in which bellowed gasoline torches. As a matter of fact, the squad andl equipment were working under unusual and exceptional circumstances, and were putting to an actual test an experiment in road-making never before attempted by this Canadian City with its million inhabitants. The work was commenced on November 7th, and the City gave the contract to a private firm, which was given the order to lay the surface with "amiesite," a comparatively new paving substance, which derives its name from the French chemist, who first prepared it, Dr. Amies, by name. At its last Council meeting the administration was authorised to .go ahead with the work without calling tenders, for although the appropriation voted was 25,575 dollars, and the executive is compelled to obtain tenders for all amounts over 5000 dollars, this procedure was waived,-: with authority of the Council, and the committee was allowed to try its first experiment with the new material. It is a composite substance, manufactured of asphalt and concrete. It is claimed to possess the property of being laid in any temperature, hot or cold, to resist pressure, while being resilient, and to be almost impervious to traffic wear and jtl.ear. The substance is idrayed, already manufactured, to the spot where it is to be used, in large trucks, and dumped into steam-heated vats, ifrorti which it is laid on the roadway. It is then rolled and tamped. Joints are welded with great heaters, resembling inverted vats, into which jets,.of flame are injected from gasoline compression torches.

The Champ de Mars is 15,000 square yards in area, and the work was done with City workmen in approximately ten days. The City, as Trell as all America, is closely watching the experiment of the use of this new material, for it will effect a great saving in .paving as well as having the advantage of the road preserving aln even surface. It will he the delight of automohilists, for it is believed no chuck holes will develop as tijne passes.