PERMANENT ROADS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 277, 22 November 1928, Page 8

PERMANENT ROADS

CONCRETE ADVOCATED AUSTRALIAN EXPERT'S TOUR. (Special “Chronicle” Service.) AUCKLAND, Nov. 19. “This is an age of road transport and the concrete road. Concrete is the oniy permanent material discovered up to the present that is suitable for roau construction. ’ ’ This opinion was expressed by Mr Charles W. Lloyd, a member of the National Roads Association of Australia, who was a passenger by the Aorangi on his way to attend the I’an-Americun Road Congress at Cleveland, Ohio. “City thoroughfares should also be constructed in concrete where the roads are nut interfered with by subterranean drainage,” he continued. “For the secondary road the bitumen penetration process could be used.” In America, Canada, England and Europe, Air Lloyd intends to investigate road transport, while he is on his present tour. A good concrete road would stand for 60 years without repair, said Mr Lloyd.; The samples of cement which had been down on Auckland’s roads lor seven years were among the finest samples he had seen anywhere in the world. The i fine class of local blue metal, together with good cement, made lasting concrete. Mr Lloyd said the paving of concrete roads with bitumen had been condemned, as the better road was covered, and bitumen always developed a heavy surface. Also all material for concrete roads could be obtained locally, whereas bitumen had to be imported from America, and was not satisfactory. He maintained that bitumen was not necessary even on secondary roads, and mentioned the light traffic roads round New Orleans, which had been laid down in oyster shells. The shells were spread over the road, well watered, and then crushed and consolidated by a heavy roller, the lime in the shells providing the necessary binding. The roads were firm and would stand considerable traffic. Better roads would provide cheaper transport, said Mr Lloyd. The roads had once yielded to the railways, but now. with the advent of motor transport, they were winning back what they had lost.