ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 117, 11 February 1919, Page 6

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

—£ ' NEW METHODS TO BE STUDIED BY CITY ENGINEER. One of tlis most important: matters that will oceupv the attention of the City Engineer (Sir. W. H. Morton) during his coining trip abroad will be the study of modern methods of road construction in America aiid in England. In Mr. Morton's opinion there is nothing of such ; pressing importance _at the present time as road constructioii to Bicot the altered conditions of traffic, Most of the old® methods have been found to bo inadequate for ,tho heavy motor traffic that is only in its infancy so far as Is'ew Zealand is concerned, And the experiments that ure being made in, England, and perhaps to a greater extent in America, are valuable as to what is likely to be needed in this country. Mr. Morton believes-that wood-blocks are not iikely to come down much ill price, for in the natural order of things they must become scarcer as the forests are cut down, and, taking the price into consideration, they will probably only be used to snrfacc in id-city streets. But something will have to be devised in the direction of malting a permanent surface which will withstand the racket of heavy motor traffic, and in that direction it will be inters.-ting to observe American methods and their effect in the case of I roads surfaced with Trinidad asphalt, Union asphalt, and concrete. The sub-j iect has to be carefully studied in regard to cost of construction, particularly in regard to labour, and the plants used for laying down- modern road surfacings will also conic- under the engineer's attention. The subject is of .immediate interest to Wellington, as with the increase. of motor 'traffic it is recognised that sooner or later a permanent surface will haw to lie given the Hutt Head.