Rubber Roads

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 5, 1 January 1916, Page 530

Rubber Roads

An experiment with a rubber surface for roads is being made in London on the Old Kent road, which carries a very heavy traffic. The initial expense of rubber is considerably higher than that of wood block surface, but the wearing qualities of the rubber are so much superior that it may prove the better investment. Some years ago a rubber road was laid in the enclosure of Euston, the London terminal of the London and North-Western Railway. We believe this is still in use. The cost might be regarded as prohibitive so far as general application is concerned, for it was £7 the square yard. The rubber is laid on a concrete bed, and it is fastened down to timbers imbedded in the concrete. The rubber slabs are laid transversely across the full width of the road. They are two inches thick and three feet ten inches wide. At the edge of the curb they are held in position by angle irons.