Bricks For Roads

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 255, 25 July 1935, Page 11

Bricks For Roads

Sir, —In a paragraph in a recent "News in Brief” column, it was stated that a firm had offered to supply 25,000 bricks and to lay an experimental section of street with them free of cost. I desire to state that there is no need to experiment in brick streets and pavements; in America, over a period of some 30 years, many hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of streets and footpaths were laid down with bricks, and where the materials were suitable and the ultimate methods were adopted, these roads, after many years in some instances, are still being used and are satisfactory. In the experimental stages when bricks were superimposed upon on. unsatisfactory foundation, the result was disastrous. It was found also that only .certain clays were satisfactory; only (clays that could be vitrified without ad.hering’to each other during the firing process were suitable. When I say that •.eventually the test applied to these bricks was to take 50 and weigh them, then enclose them in a steel cylinder and revolve them at a speed of many thousand revolutions a minute when they must not lose more than i per cent. (i%) of their weight, and that after passing that test, upon examination all edges must be practically intaet, it will be appreciated that, as far as Wellington is concerned, it is, indeed, an experiment, I have not the slightest doubt that the piece of road will be laid down, because any firm which undertakes to do the job is as well informed on this subject as 1 am. The reason bricks have been discarded as a method of road construction is that it was found that nothing less than 6in. to Sin. of reinforced concrete was necessary as a foundation, and this concrete had to be laid upon a specially-rolled and prepared foundation, so that the road load was well distributed. When the concrete was satisfactorily .’aid, a cushion or bed of sand lin. to Ilin, thick, was used, on which the bricks were tightly packed; this to give resiliency and spring. As I have already stated, roads constructed on these lines were, and are, eminently satisfactory.—l am, etc., BRICK AND FIRECLAY EXPERT. Wanganui, July 20.