WOOL FOR ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 11

WOOL FOR ROADS.

FABRIC SURFACE SCHEME.

TRIALS IN AMERICA.

EXPERIMENTS WITH COTTON. Experiments about to be conducted in Marlborough County in incorporating rough -wool in road surfaces follow trials oTa similar nature which have been made in the United States of America. In the southern cotton-producing States experiments made with cotton fabrics for surfacing country roads havo already attracted widespread notice. According to American publications results indicate that roads can be quickly and economically improved by the use of a cotton fabric membrane in combination with light tar and asphaltic oil.

The highway is first subjected to tho processes employed in bituminous surface treatment, an initial coat of light tar then being applied. After 24 hours cotton fabric is spread longitudinally over the surface of the road while tho tar is still sticky enough to hold the fabric in place. Hot asphaltic oil is then spread over the new surface, which is immediately covered with coarse sand or fine gravel. Almost as soon as this lgst covering has been applied tho road is ready for traffic. When the experimental sections of the State highway in South Carolina thus treated were inspected after the first year it was found that the shoulders of the highway were in excellent condition, showing practically no sign of wear. In addition to the low cost of construction and maintenance, advantages claimed for this method are the prevention of rainwater soakage, the increase in supporting strength, the tendency to delay displacement of small pieces of surface on the edges of the road, and delay in the forming of corrugations by restraining the flow or displacement of materials. That fabric has a binding and strengthening effect on road surfaces has therefore been established and lends encouragement to those responsible for the coarse wool experiments in Marlborough. Success would do much toward increasing the demand for inferior wool in New Zealand.