CONCRETE PAVING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15133, 30 January 1917, Page 4

CONCRETE PAVING.

Ik view of t He bad condition of some of our roads and the metal difficulties which the authorities are faced with, interest attaches the question of concrete paving, which is receiving the attention of many local bodies iir New Zealand. At a meeting of the Auckland City Council last week there was a. drscussion on the subject of concrete paving, as the outcome of a recommendation by the City Engineer that the city boundary road at Park Avenue he so treated at a cost of ,£I6OO. Mr H. N. Bagnall expressed the ’ opinion that concrete had not been satisfactory fer reading purposes, in .that it had been found necessary to put something else on top of it. This course had been found necessary in Little Queen Street. There were hundreds of miles of roads in America on which the traffic ran on the bare concrete surface. It seemed to him that something of this kind should be possible in New Zealand. The Mayor (Mr J. H. Guneon) stated that it was incorrect to say tha Little Queen placet was a failure It was an absolute success. The cost of coating the concrete with union asphalt had not been applied to prevent crumbling, but to give horses a better footing. The City Engineer (Mr W. E. Bush) briefly explained the policy he had adopted of road paving. In 1910, he stated, he had reported on the alternative systems of stone setts, wood paving, asphalt, and concrete. His report was in favour of concrete, but at that time the Council was net inclined to experiment in this direction,and decided to use wood paving Certain streets were paved with jarrah blocks aid red birch blocks. Wherever jairah had been used it had been found necessary to. use some protective covering, in order t6 give horses a foothold and also to protect the joints from damp. Obviously, it was a Waste of money to lay down wood blocks and have to give them a protective covering every twelve months. If a suitable covering could he applied to concrete it would give one of the best roads they could possibly get at half the cost. An experiment had been tried in Little Queen Street with union asphalt, which had been a success. The covering had two a dvantagcip-the street traffic .was practically noiseless, and the strain of the eyes was greatly reduced. It was recognised in America that if a suitable covering could be found the problem of. concrete paving was solved. Her© we had the

benefit of a climate which did not vary to the extent of the climate in America, and consequenly did not affect the concrete to the same extent. The experiment they had tried had been a success, and as a result they had a good road at about half the cost that had been anticipated.