ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 12

ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

BITUMEN VERSUS CONCRETE TENDENCY TO ADOPT THE FORMER, I {From Oob Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 3. Discussion on tlie respective merits of concrete and asphalt roads has begun again in the London dailies. A member of the Institute of Civil Engineers,'writing in'the Morning Post,, gives his reasons for believing in the superiority of Ihe asphalt. "For entirely new roads which can be left to mature for some months before traffic is allowed upon them," he says, "an engineer would be justified in laying an all-concrete road, but in such cases he would be well advised to build his road at such levels as will permit an asphalt surface being superimposed upon the concrete, should it fail when subjected to traffic. This suggestion is no theoretical or propagandist idea of one interested in asphalt or the sale thereof, but is the practice now adopted by the most experienced and prominent road engineers of the day in this country. The question lias been asked in the press: 'Why do we in this country continue to adopt antiquated methods of road construction, and who do we not follow the practice of our American friends in laying cement concrete?' It is sufficient answer to say that what is one man's meat is another man's poison. Concrete may bo satisfactory in the U.S.A., although those of us who have seen concrete roads in the States ara definitely of opinion that (ho standard there is not on a sufficiently high plane> to satisfy the British public. Two of the most prominent of our county engineers have in recent years visited the States, and there studied the road question. They were certainly unbiased, and if they were convinced of what our cement friends would have us believe, one would expect to find the roads of which they have cnargo surfaced with concrete, but it is not, so. They, ih© responsible officials to important highway authorities, continue to adopt the methods most favoured by English engineers who, having experience of our traffic and climate, have come to the conclusion that surfaces of a bituminous nature are most economical and satisfactory for conditions pertaining here. NEW WORK IN AMERICA. "If asphalt surfaces are out of date, as tho cement enthusiasts would have us believe, why were there 125,000,000 square vards of asphalt laid in the United States in the year 1924, and only 88,000,000 square yards of cement concrete? Our road enginsers are no fools; they are competent of forming sound opinions. When cement propagandists are prepared to accept responsibility for their wor!<. as asphalters do and have done for years, then those responsible for '■ : -r!i , vay maintenance will believe that •■'. * manufacturers have confidence in thei: v. ares. "It is just possible that the sound common sense with which the British are endowed may be at fault in the matter of road construction, but if this is so it is strange that in practically every civilised country in the world where the value of roads is appreciated asphalt is being laid in increasing quantities. ] " Where traffic consists of rubber and ' steel-tyred traffic, as it does in this conn- : try, road surfaces must be laid which will : not suffer from abrasion, and, no one can j honestly .-ay that cement concrete fills the I bill in this respect," ]