The MOTOR

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 29

The MOTOR

RIVALLING OLD ROME

MUSSOLINI'S WAY

ARMY OF ROAD BUILDERS

"For.years, the terriblo. atate of Italian roads'has been a .'byword to all who- have suffered from their shortcomings," writes Victor Beveridge in "The Motor," "Indeed, two years ago I warned all motorists who valued their cars to give them a miss. ■ "But out of that chaos of neglect there has arisen a new and rehabilitated highway system—worthy even of the builders who first taught the world the art of rbadmaking. . "One iriust not, however, expect to 'find a complete miracle worked overnight. Mussolini is, after all, not quite a magician—although very near one in some things—who can materialise road plans, stretching ovqx thousands of miles, in a day and";a. nightl Boads take time to construct—if they are to be good and,to last. Particularly is this the case when so many miles are over winding mountains where the solid >ock has to be blasted out by the thousands of tons. "Wisely the first step has been to put the corners into good shape, and Italy is a country of innumerable blind .turnings. These are being widened, the outer curves banked up and the inner sections'flattened out so that on--1 coming traffic may be seen before the actual turn is made. To clear somo of these blind spots an almost inconceivable quantity of material has been removed a" d dumped into the valley or used to build up narrow strotehes. "The work in hand, however, has not been confined to the old roads; a number of special motor ways^—'autostrada' they are called—are' in course of construction or are already completed. "Here, is a list of those I have been -over and there are no finer speedways in the world,:--- . Milan—Bergamo ."..... ;54 kiloms. ; Milan—Varese 50 kiloms. Milan—Como 45 kiloms. : Milan—Sesto-Calende .. 60 kiloms. Naples—Pompeii 40 kiloms. Eonie—Ostia 20 kiloms. "I am not quite certain of the dis- : tances I have given in the last two, but . I think they are about right. "If the Borne-Naples main road is finished on the same scale as the stretch to the Neapolitan racecourse, then I ,can assure you there will bo a highway beyond compare with anything existing in tho world fto-day. STUPENDOUS ENGINEERING. "At this moment of writing the motorist entering Italy, as most do. from the French Riviera, will find ' patches o the old rough road still in existence, that penetrating dust, which made some sort of gas mask almost : necessary for open car motoring, still to be met—but he will also see some of the most stupendous road engineering' in progress. Frankly, the vast scale operations to. improve that entrance way are almost unbelievable. At one or two points, -where the road is being , straightened out, you might think tho : world's mightiest cathedral was beins: built.... / .-■ * ; "South of San.Bemo to Genoa a sum .of forty-five million lira.has been spent, and much of that old-time nightmare has been converted into a smooth dustless; track. Particularly so ono is delighted to find most of the mountain roads, over Portofino and the Braccos, jJirjeally. excellent shape. "I did have one rather unfortunate expenenee near Eapallo one night. Arriving late at a level crossing, the keeper managed to convey to me the information that I could go no farther The road tunnelled through the rocks' had cavea in! That was ono for me, to^whom Italian is a dead language! "There was no other available load south so I returned to tho nearest, railway station, got my motor put on a flat car, passed through the railway tunnel —a journey of about six miles j

—got on the road again, and reached my destination not too late. "For months during the summer this railway journey-was the only means of getting down the coasfc road. Now one can pass without all this trouble. ROAD GANGS AND MACHINERY. "All over the country you pass road gangs equipped- with the latest road building machinery—sqme of the tolers are enormous. I was told that six thousand road men are now at work. "Unfortunately, the macadam type of water-bound road is still being employed in many places, but there appears to bo an increasing resort to tar mixtures for top-dressing. This is natural in a country which produces practically no coal and where the price of anthracite is something like £7 per ton. "I was, shown' anew type of oiled road which seems to offer a way out of the shortage of coal tar. This is a. mixture—so I was told—of oil and Water, which is sprayed over the finished road surface. For the first week a daily application, then on alternate days for a week, with a final coating after one. week's rest. The liquid soaks down about a foot and is waterproof. . ,- . : , "That it is possible to mako excellent timo over the roads as they now exist may be gauged from the fact that I drove my 16 h.p. car from Borne to Florence, 189 miles, via Siena, in four and a half hours—and it is no level stretch of country, I can assure you. "Owing to the fact that on many roads, particularly in the mountains, there is never a hundred yards of straight running, fast times are not only dangerous but practically impossible. The Italian drivers of bullock and horse carts never keep on their correct side.: That is tho main impediment, to fast driving. ''When all the Italian roada are put Into firstTclass order thero will be such an invasion: of motorists as will speeduy recoup the country for its road investment. The Italian himself rare|y ventures on extensive touring—so it is primarily for'the benefit of the strangers who visit the country that this great highway renaissance has been undertaken. * "Now the wandering motorist may, with confidence, cross the Italian frontier; the doors of its hospitality are wide open and the day of its rough rocky roads has passed into history?