ROAD BUILDING

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 22

ROAD BUILDING

WHAT IS BEING DONE IN CANADA. POPULARITY OF PETROL-DRIVEN VEHICLES. COMPETITION WITH THE RAILWAYS. Mr Alan Jackson, an old Dunedin and Lawrence boy is at present on a visit to his relatives here. After completing his education at the Otago Boys’ High School, Mr Jackson, who had decided to go in for civil engineering, worked for five years with Messrs A. and T. Burt, and then with Mr J. Noble Anderson, the city drainage engineer. In 190*5 Mr Jackson went to London and subsequently obtained an engagement in Demerara, South America. Here he supervised the erection of quartz and mining machinery, and in 1909 he returned to London. In 1910 he left' London again, this time for Brantford, Ontario province, where he has followed his profession ever since, with tjie exception of a couple of years, when he was with the Canadian troops in F ranee. Mr Jackson stated to a Times reporter recently that he had noticed that a Main Roads Board was being formed lor New Zealand for the purpose of constructing and repairing the main highways of the dominion. A similar scheme had been adopted in Ontario province in 1919. The roads wore being built by the provincial governments, but the Dominion Government subsidised the expenditure. Ontario province—about the ante size as New Zealand and twice its population —had taken over 1800 miles of main roads, and at the present time some 300 miles of roadway had been completed. The roads leading out of the' cities (over 10.000 people) and towns (under 10,000 people) were being formed first, as they naturally carried the greatest and heaviest traffic. The system of forming roads was now well unde-r way right through the dominion. From Brantford (30.000 people) a road had been paved to Toronto —75 miles: from Galt to Niagara Falls, through Hamiltonover 100 miles —a highway had also been completed, and long stretches of pavement had been laid east and west of Toronto and round London, Chatham, and Windsor. Most of the formation is of a permanent character. Iri some cases it was composed of penetration tar, concrete, and macadam with an asphalt top —the same sort of top as w’as laid in Lower High street and Rattray street. Some roads, again, had a concrete base, and some just a macadam base, but the greatest mileage was composed of concrete right through. One of the greatest advantages of concrete was the speed at which it could be laid, and thus the traffic was not unduly inconvenienced in being diverted to side roads which were not really able to carry such traffic. To give an idea of how quickly, under the modern plant used, concrete could be put down. Mr Jackson said that four and three-quarter miles of road had been made outside the city of Brantford in 42 days. The men worked one ten-hour shift—they always worked 10 hours a day—because they could not work on the roads in the winter time. The pavement on these provincial highways was 20 feet in width, with a shoulder of some softer materia] five feet on each side, and ditches outside the shoulder. Tlie experience they had had was that the moment a road was completed bet ween two towns —and even before —motor buses and motor trucks came into use in competition with the railways. There was no doubt that these vehicles were competing very successfully with the railways up to a limit, say. of 100 miles. The motor trucks enabled the producer to be brought, into direct touch with the consumer —goods, in fact, could lie landed at the consumer’s door and thus the necessity of the extra handling required under railway transport w'as done away with. Tlie heavy building programmes entered on hv the province of Ontario and the dominion as a whole was no doubt the direct result of the enormous increase in motor cars, buses, and trucks. Last year there were 216.000 cars and trucks in Ontario province, and hv January of this year it, was anticipated that this number would he increased to over 300 000. Annual car licenses were issued. Every year the owner has to purchase two new numbered plates. No doubt it is a more expensive system or registration than obtains in New Zealand, but it has ihe advantage that, the authorities are enabled to discover the exact number of cars in any locality. Each province issues its own license. Tn Brantford eifv licenses have been issued for over 3000 cars this yea r Mr .Tact-son went on to sav that the effect of ihe motor trucks on the roads is very martod. and that considerable damage had already been done. To obviate the damage from heavv vehicles the authorities on January 1. 1922. decided to reduce the load allowed to be carried. Prior to that date a lo>d of 12 tons was nermissible. but. it was then reduced to 10 tons. These we’ghts include the vehicle. Tn January. 1923. tte load was further reduced to eie-ht tons (Ihe short American ton of 2000!b). The annual license fee is based on horserower. The smallest license fee is about 12s 6d per annum. This is paid for a Fnrrl car. Mr Jackson continued that it had been found very difficult to carry out the restrictions regarding loading, but this had been overcome to a great extent by employing policemen on motor cycles. ’ The policemen carried a portable weighing device. and any man caught with an overload had his over load at once deposited at the snot where he was stopped. A prosecution followed in due course. Petrel, or gasoline as it is called in Canada, cost Is 6d per gallon, a considerable reduction on the price in New Zealand. They were, of course, nearer the souree of the gasoline, and some gasoline was produced in Ontario itself from the natural gas wells. These ran along the southwest part of Ontario province. Reference was made to the growing popularity of the jitney service-—“jitney” is a slang term for a five-cent, piece—and the word is now applied to buses which carry passengers for a five-cent fare. Mr Jackson also, stated that now that motor

trucks were used to carry a large part of the light freight there seemed no reason why they should not in many cases be utilised in preference to railways in the thinly populated country districts. The wants of the people could be well served by motor trucks, and for the time being they would prove less expensive than having to lay down a railway line. In England a system of motor trucks as feeders to the railways had been introduced. There seemed no doubt that the motor trucks were here to stay, and it was simply a question of building the most economical type of pavement and controlling the weight of the trucks to suit, the roads built. The truck traffic, indeed, had entered into competition very successfully with the railways and had taken a lot of the “short-haul” freight from them. Long haul freight would still belong to the railways, but trucks had proved not only more convenient hut a more economical form of transport for short hauls, and the adjustment to these conditions is now daily taking place in Ontario. Mr Jackson concluded by saying that he had noticed when coming down by rail from Christchurch to Dunedin that a lot of the roads were well formed of macadam, and he had observed during a visit to the Taieri that the roads there were also well formed. Thev had a good solid foundation and they would take a permanent surface with probably very little additional base work.