JOLTED TO DESTRUCTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 3

JOLTED TO DESTRUCTION.

DANCERS OF FAST TRAFFIC. The recent collapse of a building in London has called attention to some of the older structures which are suffering as a result of age combined with modern conditions. Experts inquiring into the matter are of the opinion that these old buildings are suffering from the dangerous effects of modern traffic and its increased vibration. The fall of the Lord Nelson Inn in Lever street, on October 16, with the consequent loss of two lives, is only the latest of a long and ominous series of such collapses which include those in Beak street and Cornhill last year. Houses, especially on corner sites, shored up with timber are almost too common in London now to excite notice, and it was recently stated in Parliament that 5091 defective houses had been reported to the London County Council.

When - the official mind remains sceptical as to the danger caused by traffic vibrations, independent experts have no doubt on the matter and view the position with grave alarm.

Sir John Simpson, the distinguished architect, a past president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, has made a special study of this question. He told a Daily Mail reporter that there are thousands of brick buildings in London which are in danger of collapse owing to modern traffic.

‘ Many of them were built soon after the Great Fire,” he said. “Even in the normal course of events they would now be approaching their end, but traffic vibrations will hasten it and cause sudden collapse. _ They were never built to stand this strain. ■ Most of them were built of bricks with mortar composed of lime and sand. The lime has perished, so thev are now bricks with sand between. Every time a heavy lorry or a tramway cartramway cars are. particularly dangerous —goes along the road it gives a bump which is communicated to the base of the house wall. There are hundreds and thousands of these jolts, and by and by each one shakes a little sand out from between the \ bricks. The ultimate collapse is inevitable. “Who can doubt the traffic vibration? Why, even my office table, 50 yards from the road, shakes whenever a tramway car goes by. Possibly a remedy might be found in the provision of shock absorbers for roads. It is a matter which should engage the earnest attention of toad engineers if our buildings are to be preserved. I would suggest that if some sort of elastic material could be placed vertically at the side of all new roads in busy city streets, it would not only" save buildings from the constant transmitted shocks of passing traffic, but would also do something to lessen the noise.

“The other remedy I suggest is the provision of more stringent penalties for landlords who neglect to take proper precautions for the constant inspection and, it necessary, the support of buildings they own.

“ Modern buildings 0 f concrete and steel arc more elastic anti will stand the strain, but the old ones arc too often to-day but houses of bricks and sand, held together by the plaster and the paper on the walls. In the nest few years there will certainly bn frequent collapses of old buildings in London due to the heavy traffic unless some such remedy as I have suggested is applied.