PUBLIC OPINION.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1437, 10 December 1919, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION.

CONCRETE v. TAR-SEALED ROADS. (To tlie Editor.) Sir, —I notice the Kairanga County Council has decided to take a poll for loan of £IO,OOO for tarring roads. This is strange in' the face of a poll having- been taken a short time ago for the same purpose, and which was lost both in the Mangaone and Taonul Ridings. The decision of the ratepayers on that occasion goes to show that they are fully alive to the necessity of a more permanent class of road. If a poll had been taken then for a permanent concrete road I’m sure the loan would have been carried by 95 per cent, of the ratepayers. It is very unfortunate for the people of this country that all our local engineers are persistent in advocating raising loans to carry on road making under the old method, and in nearly every case councillors follow them regardless of how much they may be at sea with their ideas. Much has been said of late concerning road making, especially' by engineers, • and one has only to think a little to know that some of their reports are veryunreliable. To prove this readers need only to look up the report of two engineers on the five chains of concrete road laid down on Rangitikei X,ine, in which they state that if the same class of road was put down under Council conditions it would cost more money, and that I must have used my enthusiasm with the men to have got the work done for £3O per chain. To show the absurdity of their report they state that one item, that is for mixing and laying concrete, labour only-, should cost 6/- per cubic yard if done under Council conditions. Since this absurd statement was made 1 read" a report from the engineer to the Auckland City Council, who was sent to America to gain some knowledge on the construction of concrete roads, in which he stated he saw a gang- of twenty men receiving £l/1/per dav each putting down a road 15 feet wide, 4fin thick; the amount they- were laying down daily was a few feet short of 10 chains. The cost of this works out for labour only at 2/4 per cubic yard—what a contrast between our engineers’ estimate at 6/-!. The same work under my supervision while putting down the 5 chains cost for labour only 3/- per cubic yard, just half what our engineers claim it should cost if put down under Council conditions. Where did they get their knowledge from, or are they guessing? If not there must be something wrong with Council conditions, for surely we have as good men in the country as the Yankees, and they would not expect a guinea a day, either. The whole of the report made by our engineers is made up of similar unreliable statements, and the question is; Are the ratepayers going to he gulled by such statements and turn down for all time any chance or hope ot a concrete road, the finest asset the country could ever possess. In answer to a question asked at ratepayers’ meeting, Mr Wright, engineer to Kairanga County Council, said the cost ot the 5 chains of concrete on Rangitikei Line was to the Council £3O per chain, and quoted statements made by two engineers, who reported that £l4/10/had to be added to that for side track to be used while concrete was being laid, and £3/10/- for depreciation and contingencies. It is ridiculous to saya side track would cost £l4/10/- per chain, because if a concrete road was put down during the summer months £1 per chain would be sufficient to make a summer track to serve the purpose, and in many cases no track would be required at all, as traffic could be diverted on to other roads during the laying, of the concrete. A great deal has been said concerning the cost of the experimental block of 5 chains on Rangitikei Line, and it is rumoured that I agree with the engineers that the road cost more than £3O per chain. This is absolutely untrue. The actual cost of the road was under £3O per chain. That included everything except depreciation on tools and teams. The hire of the concrete .mixer was charged in the cost of the road, so no charge for depreciation can be made for that. The engineers’ report on the road is worthless on account, of their statements not being based on facts. I admit that if a similar road was put down now the extra cost of labour and cement would have to be added —that would mean about £5 per chain.’ This road was undertaken by myself merely to demonstrate what could be done under local conditions if carried out under specifications which I considered would make a cheap and first-class road, but at the time when the road was made ’ I would have prepared fine broken metal for making up the/top course of llin, to take the wear. As this class of metal could not be procured at the time, I had to use ordinary-water-worn river metal instead. Much better results would be obtained from a road with the top course made up with fairly fine broken rock, with the right proportion of coarse sand added. This would make the wearing of the road equal to the best in the world, and would add little or nothing to the cost of a road put down on the same lines as the experimental block.

If anyone i.s in doubt of the advantages to be gained by having concrete roads, it would be an object lesson to them to go and see the perfect, smooth-running roads already put down in Auckland. These roads carry an enormous amount of traflic, and there is no sign of any wear taking place. If the present loan is carried and the Council puts down miles of tarred roads, and has to depend on importing bitumen to keep these roads up, the scheme will end in disaster, because long before the loan is paid off another loan will have to bo raised to put the roads down in concrete. The road put down on Foxton Line with rcstar has stood well up to the present, but it is not equal to concrete, and it would surprise the ratepayers if they were supplied with the exact cost of that road. I was told by engineers who arc qualified experts on tarred macadam roads, in the presence. of Mr Wright, that a road of that class could not be put down under £25 per chain, and Mr Wright' agreed with them. The cost of labour and materia! has gone up considerably since then. If ratepayers want a cheaper tarred road they should walk down FiL.herbcrt Street as far as the Esplanade and see for themselves what has just recently been laid down with tar. 1 am sure that would settle their minds once and for all, and that they will never tolerate such waste of money in the way of road making. It has been proved all over the world that tar perishes alter being exposed to the weather for a few years, but Mr Wright claims that he has a remedy for that by importing bilumen from America. Considering America is the home of this material, it is strange that so many thousands of. miles of concrete roads are being pul down in that country - every year, if bitumen is belter or in any way nearly as good. In the Waikato various loans have been carried for concrete loads, and anoMier large; loan of £ijh,n()o has Just been approved: also one of fMii.OOO has been favoured by the. settlers of Tauhei to construct a concrete road from Tauhei to Morrinsville, a distance of twelve miles. A committee was set up to make a re- ' port as to the advisability of erecting I a light railway or a concrete road to

enable settlers to deliver their milk to the dried milk factory. It was decided in favour of the latter, which the settlers adopted. This is what the committee had to say on tar macadam roads! A tar macadam road is costly to construct and expensive to, maintain. The average first cost would be about 25 per cent, less than a concrete road. A tar sealed road is cheaper to construct but more expensive to maintain, owing to the fact that tar, even when distilled and the oils extracted, has not proved a success as a binding substance for road making. A good bitumen road binding can be obtained from America, but as it has been discarded there it is worthless here. The N.Z. Society of Civil Engineers in February last practically dispelled | this class of road from their minds. The committee also stated that concrete roads would serve a more allround purpose, and milk could be hauled by motor lorry tanks as used in America, and at a much less cost than by rail. Mr Gibbs, engineer to Piako County Council, was asked to speak on the question, and he declared himself in favour ,of concrete roads. He illustrated the folly of metal roads where there was motor traffic by pointing out that the ratepayers of Tauhei were still paying for I a metal road which had long since been worn out, and they would still be paying for this road for 25 years more. Mr Gibbs quoted instances in I which 16ft concrete roads had borne i a traffic estimated at 13,000 vehicles ! a day, and had shown no signs of wearing. Mr Gibbs quoted his recent I Taranaki experience. The roads there | were hard and clean, but their sur- | face consisted of a succession of j thousands of little waves. The matej rial under the sin-face of tar macadam i roads soon disintegrated, and when I the surface broke the road went to pieces. This necessitated costly upkeep. That good roads were a great ! asset, said Mr Gibbs, was evidenced I by the experience in America, when, laud values went up immediately good I roads were laid down. A railway up ■ to 100 miles was not advisable, said the speaker. On concrete roads in 1 America caterpillar tractors, drawing I enormous loads of 20 vehicles, each j of 20 tons capacity, were frequently | seen. There, the traffic on concrete | roads was not restricted. In Taranaki j a fee of £6 was charged at each of I the toll gates for a traction engine that was required to pass through. It i was held that traction engines broke | the seal of the roads. Mr Gibbs ex- ! pressed the opinion that it would pay | the local bodies of Taranaki to pull ! up their tar macadam roads and lay I them down in concrete. Water-bound I macadam roads cost £2OO per year lo i maintain, while the addition of tar j reduced this amount to £IOO. Tar macadam roads cost £2OOO to make, which at C.i per cent, was over £l2O interest. Upkeep cost £IOO per year. Concrete roads cost £3OOO lo make, and interest £IBO. Upkeep could be put down at £8 per year. Cattle will not slip on concrete. They will dn I tar macadam. On one part of the i Taranaki roads 20 vehicles have been I smashed at one time or another i through the slippery nature of the | road." The cost of laying the base of a concrete road is about equal io the cost of a metal road Next to concrete, bituminous coated road is Ihe best, but the cost of bitumen is 1.-e-I coming very heavy Immediately the concrete road is down it is an asset. In the face of such evidence I tom iMr Gibbs and others, ratepayers would be wise lo turn these loans down for tarred roads, as they did before, and if the present cornu dors absolutely refuse to take up a mere progressive altitude they should immedialcly be asked to resign, as holding office until the next election in twelve mouths time would mean holding the progress of the County back. I may say that it will not lie convenient for mo to again stand as a Councillor, but while 1 hold that ! osilion 1 consider it is my duty to put my views before the ratepayers, whether I fail in my ideas <»:• not; and i am quite aware Unit i cm up against a luird proposition to light a loin; baud against the Counciihn. and the engineer, who are m ponsiblc lor placing the loan In to. Ihe people, and the latter will he asked to pay for it for many ye; r; , ler the roads are worn out. Let us , take a lea c.i from other progressive countries' * . peiience. Go not ltd us start wan '■ e they commenced when we may tart neck and nock witli thorn now d gain the experience they have p- d lor. 1 am, etc.. G. (HAW. G. CKAW.