MUDOY ROADS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12215, 3 August 1910, Page 7

MUDOY ROADS

A local resident makes a suggestion which he considers well worthy of the attention of the Borough Engineer. In some parts of America where road-mak-ing material is not available, there is, he says, a chain system, by which far- ■ mers maintain sections m proportion to (their property. The roads receive little or no metal, but m the muddy season each farmer ..brings out a team and gives the road Afhat'may be termed a "brush- ; ing." The implements used vary according to different ideas, but the. object is to smooth out the face of the j track, so that sun and rain help to solidify the surface, lessening the dust m the summer and the mud m th*e winter. Tho£e who know how our own clay roads make up m the summer will, the gentleman states, understand what cooperative action ,of the kind would ensure, the • clay roads when hard being preferred to macadamised roads for light traffi«7' bat ivith .a marked contrast when a road is puddled with wator and churned into slush and bog. The American .system could not be applied generally Jin the country district here, but the Opinion is expressed that an experiment might be made m the Borough by the Council,'' with altered conditions 1 to meet the different' work. "What it wants, it seems .to mc.!' he states, "is a light I roller, the wider' the better, with* which ! a horse could" cover the ground at the | rate of soveral- miles an hour. This should be run over the poorly metalled roads, so that a lot of the horse and wheel tracks would be levelled out and 'given, an opportunity to dry. Discre^ tion would have to be. used m not try'iiijr to deal with an absolute bog, and m seizing opportunities when the wind 'or sun can be expected to do a share. jTake Roebuck road, for instance, it is now converted into mud a foot deep 'with each show ci* of rain, but I believe that tbe use of a roller at - suitable times J would leave, the road m fair order. The principle is simply that which you see m the case ; of i bicycles. Directly the ' wheels c-in be pushed through the slush {you see a smoth and solid track form, 'with mud over "the boot tops on either side. Expedients of this sort" do not fit m M'ith lofty ideas of engineering, but a practical man could soon test the value ofmy suggestion, pending the great time coming when asphalt roads are- to be branched out m all directions*? The suggestion, which is not original, should be worth tho acting-Mayor's prompt attention ; it will be useless if )cft until the mud iii the suburbs is being circulated m the form of dust.''