Bitumenised Concrete.

Opunake Times, Volume LVV, Issue 3675, 2 November 1923, Page 3

Bitumenised Concrete.

FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION. FAVOURED IN ENGLAND. Mr T 0 Fox, one of the engineers attached to the Wellington City Council's staff, recently returned from a fourteen weeks' visit, to England, during most of which time he devoted his attention to studying the various methods of toad construction in and around London. Mr Fox gives an assurance that Wellington is proceeding on sound lines, as he found that bitumenised concrete is coming into great favour in Loudon and - elsewhere in England.

Speaking to a press representative he stated that he had pasted over 70 miles of bituemised roalin five counties, which were as good as any motorist could desire. In this case the bi umen isand .mixed) wis laid on a concrete foundation, > and was standing ud to the work wonderfully well, in Lmdon he met Sir Henry Mayburv, head of the roads brancti of the Transport Department and through ilie courtesy of that geutieman was shown every branc of the work, including the new Loud to Dover road. This great highway was being relaid from end to end. The K-sis was o'd concrete and brick-bats from the London Streets, and when that was rolled it was covered with several inches of chalk flints, rolled again, and then given a r,ur-f-.ce of bitumenised concrete In London woed blocks on top of eight inches ot concrete had been found to be too light a form of construction to hold up against the 7000 tons of traffic per square yard per day, which passed over some of the principal streets, and thh authorities were now laying down from 12 to 15 inches of reinforced concrete as a foundation for the wood blocks. Australian hardwood blocks had been used in the past, but they,-had been found to wear round at the edges, and in time became as round as the cobblestones of Holborn. Blocks of deal and Baltic pine were now being used, as such soft woods wore down evenly under traffic.