ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1931, Page 8

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

(To the Editor.) Sir,—-A must illuminating letter by Mr. George A. M'Lmh appeared in the '■Evening Post,'' of tho 21st instant. Mr. M'Leau quotes tin; Mayor's recent statement that "v lot of absolute nonsense was talked when bituminous roads were laid down. People were told that they would rcquux1 no maintenance, but there is no such thing as an everlasting road. Bitumen requires to be maintained just as macadam docs." Mr. M'Lean's statement .that concrete roads over the Grampians, laid down in 1925, that concrete experimental strips in a London suburb, and concrete roads laid iv Chelsea, England, more than live years ago have required no maintenance, and the Mayor's statement that ''bitumen requires to bo maintained just as macadam does." makes one wonder, i£ correct, whether bitumen should not be discarded altogether by the Wellington City Corporation in favour of concrete roads. The Mayor is certainly a little late in his admissions, but perhaps better late than, never, although onv rates have crept | up so enormously^ while we are. saddled j with very expensive second-rate roads necessitating large sums to be expended annually in repairs. Mr. M'Lean's statements that in Australia, (where wages are so high) and. elsewhere, concrete roads six inches thick cost less than our bitumen roads >of only half that thickness, gives much food for thought. When the City Council lays its own roads instead of "calling for tenders, the public apparently can never ascertain what the full cost has been. It is extraordinary that, while concrete roads are apparently cheaper in their original, construction than bitumen, while they cost infinitely less in repairs than bitumen, and composed entirely of New Zealand-made products giving much extra employment to many thousands of New Zealandevs, we continue to import anH use bitumen. By using bitumen also we are sending money out of this country to America which we badly require here. When, as Mr. M'Xejin says, he has motored over concrete roads which have been used from seven to nine years on which no maintenance has beep incurred, in view of the Mayor's admission, this very serious matter is surely one which the Wellington Ratepayers' Association should take up.—l am, etc., CONSISTENCY.