NEW ROAD-MAKING MATERIAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 8

NEW ROAD-MAKING MATERIAL

•- O ; TRIAL IN WELLINGTON PROBABLE. Mr. L. S. Drake, the City Council's chief motor inspector, who recently visited the Taranaki district, is enthusiastic in declaring that the roads in the Hawerat 'district, and around Mount'Egmont are the best in the Dominion. He had a very good opportunity of testing the roads, which havo been laid down by Mr,. Muggeridge (engineer to the Hawera County Council), and pronounces them to bo ideal for all classes of motor traffic, having been tested by the very heavy milk-van traffic over a considerable space of time. These' roads have been treated with a composition, patented in Hawerii, a tar composition, which penetrates and solidifies to a depth of six inches, and which does not crack, rut, or roll up under traffic. One important feature in connection with the traffic in the. district mentioned is that the by-laws provide that steel lyres shall have a minimum width of 2i inches, whereas the minimum in Wellington is 1{ inches. "I motored, all round the mountain, a distance of 126* miles, on roads ,-is smooth as a billiard table," said Mr. Drake, "and all I ha'd~to pay in tolls was 9s. I don't believe there is one motorist in the country who would object to paying that much for the. comfort of travelling over such fine, roads. I- consider this new surface would be ideal for the Hutt Road."

The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke), in reference to the above, said that he intended to nsk the City Council to exneriuiont in Wellington with the new rond surface which hail proved so successful in T-sra-nnki. Mr. Luke asserts that the dust nuisance in ■'Wellington City is nminly due to the macadam surfaces of Waterloo'Onay, Feathcrston Street, and Thorn-, don Quay. "The heavy traffic about the railway s'ations and bie stores grinds the metal into grit, Along come the sweeping winds-and blows the roads clean, then the grinding process goes on, releasing more grit .for the wind to blow into the city. Personally, I favour an experiment with the new surface in Featherston Street, and under the heading of Contingencies I hone'we shall be able to do something in the matter a little later." . ,'. ■ •?