CAST IRON ROADS SUCCESSFUL.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20470, 13 February 1932, Page 11

CAST IRON ROADS SUCCESSFUL.

ALL-BRITISH INDUSTRY. imoii OLS ows coaaxsroaDE-T.) LONDON, January 5. Cast-ircn roads are to b© laid experimentally in many parts of the country ;ifi a result of the success of the shore trial sections put down in Islington, Nottingham, and other parts. English labour and niaterials are used throughout for the work. .The iron road, which was invented about eighteen months ago by Major Frank Small, a member of tho original, Royal . Flying Corps (.say? the '-Morn-, ing Post"), consists of triangular cast-" ings .'aid on a foundation oi cement thinly covered with bitumen. The surface has projections like a uon-skid tread, and the first cost oi the read is the same as for • the best >vooden paving. Iron i'oads are guaranteed for ten years, - which is about twice tho period of the stone setts; which are made mostly of foreign granite, and more than three times the period of the wooden blocks, which are made mostly of foreign wood. Standing Heavy Traffic. The Borough Engineer of. .Islington told mo yesterday that' the motor traffic was extremely heavy at the nlace where the-test- section of iron had been laid, and that the road had given overy satisfaction. ■ There had been no trouble with it of any kind. He added that tlip period of test, rather more than a month, had not yet been sufficiently long to give a final opinion on the merits of the road. In Nottingham the test section has becai down for more than a year, and has given no trouble, in spite of a great deal of heavy lorry trafhe. Complete sections are to be laid at \ccrin<*ton and at Croydon, and there is a likelihood of a section of five miles being laid near Liverpool. A Non-skid Surface. Major Small has invented a special face for the castings where there is much horse traffic, and is arranging to lay a section at the Tower Bridge approach, where the horse traffic is verv heavy. The object is to prevent the horses from slipping. * For motor-cars, the surface is nonskid, even in the worst weather: moreover. the suction between tyres and surface is eliminated, so that there* is much less splashing in wet weather. The concrete bed does not give way in tho manner found on the roads surfaced with concrete, because it receives no direct shocks. Pot-holes are impossible. , One yylue cf this road suriace, it it proves satisfactory for all kinds of .traffic, is that it will .bo of muchneaded assistance to basic industries, Tf tho system were widely adopted many blast furnaces at present idle would have to be restarted.