"THE PERFECT ROAD."

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17115, 9 April 1921, Page 10

"THE PERFECT ROAD."

- ;< AN 'AMERICAN .SUCCESS. ?/' . BITUMEN OONOBETE OH . ■ MAOADAMi - ■■■ ~ ; v fi lik pursuit of Ma enquiries regarding • the 1 'improvement of*roading, Mr - W. Stuart "Wilson recently yroterto Mr W. , J." PeSPeaitor*' of ' %e "Tdraaaki '' %rald, ,? aa amaa keenly interested in }■ dresanbdect, asking for information. Mr 1 PfiTTi w*oEe in'reply < a letter from which | the iollowing extracted:— j." Oaiiatia 'and, life ; United [ States look-out f& good roads and' for informa? < lion concerning- them.. ■•> Before visiting - - thode roads appealed 1 toopjto me; but I dscertained*that they (I'Tfre rather 'expensive' to • make and to maintain. , Two'very .fine con-> i cSrefce roads over/>whic& I travelled >, qpite new - ; othjwa'longer innise were in f :VaMta»'stagea\ of, breaking up, and I r feat forced to turn them down, as the ' road.'; When at Portland (Gttej gon)"I waS-'flrivfen 40 miles out and back i tonM&e Cblumbia .River Highway, and J here it" seemed, «to,jne wad | 4jpad I- was looking for. It is a dbnsa t a&philtier< concrete 1 toad, two inches ra laid over 1 a, well-compressed t foundation/ four mohes in tnxckr ,milee.of t .iitywas-ionßtructfced and^coffi^wted. v t ,19|5 fat a ,W3t of dollars per I J mild; and after, five 5 years' jihere was ¥ mvisible aignjof Wear, ox weakness, and Vflitftoosi-pf maintenance has been pracJ tfcally nothing. , J' have" never-seen anyp where 'so tt srfrface or so perfectly I <m9de a road. .< To, resurface an existing ■t iiiacadahi road "with; the' same asphaltic i i qopcrete ?03t ic&' 1915 about dol-

lars a mile. These .costs, however, must not be taken as the cost in this country. That depends upon the state of the existing, road to be surfaced, the cost,and quality.of available rock, and the cost of bitumen. But I was not concerning myself so much about cost as about efficiency and.maintenance. It costs our County Council here about &oW per mile per. annum to maintain? an ordinary macadam road, say, 15ft wide. (The Columbia Highway is nowhere less than l'Sft, and much wider round curves.) Capitalised at 6 per cent., £3OO per mile per annum is equivalent tj a capital outlay of £SOOO a mila,.and I argue that our county could afford that amount in surfacing its existing roads', and then be in the same positron financially, while. the saving to roadusers woiild be enormous. It is calculated that such a road as the Columbia tiighway .saves 50 per, cent, of benzine, besides reducing/tyre'and maintenance ■ c»st ofLcars more tfian'so per cent."I saw a street in Boston laid down in, 1903 UDon which there is enormous . traffic, and where»the maintenance costs have been almost hU. In Vancouver! a principal street was: surfaced over macadam in 1909,, and the. city engineer's department assured me it had never had ~a penny spent on it for maintenance in. eleven'years. I inspected it : &e*&]'6£ r s&to or Weakness. "thave seen' hiaEy testimonials from city and State engineers all speaking in the very Mghestterms of this: class of road, and there is general agreement that it is the best whenlaid on an established macadam foundation: The first cost is admittedly heavy, hut the practical abolition, of any maintenance cost for many years makes it in my opinion the cheapest road in the end. One company laid down between 1901 and 1919 the equivalent bf 6600 miles of 18ft roadway. In J919 it had contracts to lay down 1700 milesj spread over most of the States of America and the Canadian provinces. That, to my min-, is a great endorsement of''the value of the , method! .., . "When so large an outlay is undertaken the work slfcnld be carried but by someone who thoroughly understands the methods" - ';