ROAD-MAKING

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1925, Page 12

ROAD-MAKING

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS BY AN ENGLISH AUTHORITY (From Our Own Correspondent.) Carterton, November 18. Under the auspices of. the Wairarapa Automobile Association, Lieuten-ant-Colonel G. Symonds, D. 5.0., an English authority on road-making, gave an interesting address at Cartertoll yesterday afternoon before a good audience, Air. W. Howard Booth presiding. Colonel Symouds did not profess to know all about roads. He said he was alfways learning and bad seen 15 or 16 countries and learnt a little in each. He knew of no country in which reading had been improved to such an extant as in England. In America they were laying concrete roads. lu England there was a motor tax of £1 per horse power, which produced about £20,000,(100 per annum, and this was utilised by the Ministry of Transport principally on new construction, widening, grading, surfacing, setting back hedges and poles, and improving corners. The actual maintenance of unre"onstructed roads and the building of rural roads was. for the charge of local bodies. There were many cases of the entire cost of a road being borne by the Government. The repairs and maintenance costs on roads were falling. America could not believe him when lie said there were no complaints at the heavy motor taxation, but when we saw the results of roading in England to-day one would think it was money well- spent. Running costs were greatly reduced and travelling was more comfortable. The improvement of roads had completely washed out the speed limit. The limit of 20 miles per hour was si'll on the Statute Book, but it was hard'to enforce. One of the crying needs of most of the countries' he had passed through was the forming of a good roading policy. Where the Ministry of Transport supplied the money it supervised the work and saw that it got value for the money. It was extraordinary to-day what good reading meant in England. Villages had been brought into closer touch with the towns, and this had resulted in the improvement of education. Push bicvcles had increased last vear by about 700 per cent. A road was being made near Oriental Bay, Wellington, and he had read a complaint that the road was banked at the corner. Super-elevatisn of a road at a corner followed a definite formula, considering the radius of the curve, the width of the road, and tlie speed of the vehicle. A motorist thus felt the speed that the road was graced. It was a perfectly rational and sensible thing to do. in France there were notices at the corner saying, “This road is graded to a speed of eight kilometres,” and it seemed a sensible thing to do. A map of Greater London roads was shown. In the new Southend Road the corners were rounded off at intersections, allowing for a motor travelling at 25 miles per hour on a side road to sec traffic on the main road in time to slow,down before meeting it. In America the'corners were quite square, ' and traffic from side roads was compelled to. stop . before turning on to the main road, with consequent wear on brakes and increased petrol consumotion. - Roads varied greatly in tvj.e, costing from 7d. per square vard” to 9s. fid. and upwards. Replying to questions, the lecturer said that tar should not be put on top of bitumen, but bitun'icn could be put on top of tar. Tar and bitumen could be mixed at a. temperature of from 350 t<> 400 degrees Fahrenheit. -Given a similar amount of traffic, a tarred road would need re-scaling every two years, as against a bitumen sealing every three or four years. He would not say tliat a scaled road was the best for country rcGtlsj lie would advise if lie saw a’certain road, but .he would not sav ai.jthing as to which was the best class of road. It was a big mistake not to seal or grout a road which was costing £3OO a mile per annum upkeep. Sealing would probably save enough in maintenance to pay later on for a much better road. The lecturer was accorded a vote ot thanks.