The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 21st, 1925. BETTER ROADS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 August 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 21st, 1925. BETTER ROADS.

Aw interesting address on “.Modern lion,l C'oiistiiHtion" was given recently !>y .Mr K. Barker. who was lor many years general .superintendcnt ot olio of the largest mad building organisations in America, alio said the >| i lost ion of roads was receiving attention in civilised countries more than anytime else in connection with their development. The building ( ,l proper roads had done more to take people away Irom tin* (cntres than any other one thing. Better roads meant better education and did away with the isolation that formerly drove people out of the conntrv districts. The advantages of good roads could he detailed almost without end. In Mew Zealand the problem was similar to that which confronted America and Canada fifteen years ago before the development of modern motor transport. Boforo the development of the motor ears in America, the States had built fairly good macadam roads which served very well tne horse-drawn traffic. Then the umt i. ears came and they raised an entirely different problem. AYlieu the mote, cars came into general use they staggered the people liv the wav in which they destroyed the roads. All sorts of tilings were tried, but for a long while no substantial progress was made. Finally tar sealing was resorted to. That did allriglit on the out-back roads, but it was a failure near the cities. Then penetration roads were tried —the roads were scarified and tar applied in quantities for some distance down. That was an advance, hut it was not a success. Finally it was suggested that the old macadam roads might servo as a foundation for some more wearing surface. All engineers did not agree with the theory, but it was tried about 1902 or 1.1)0,‘3. r fbe roads proved successful. .Most of those roads were still in use to-day. and they bad not anything like approached the end of their life. Then communities were fared with meeting the expense of hiiildm roads of that sort. There seemed to ho nothing between the old macadam road and the new and costly road. The local bodies struggled on and did what they could out of revenue. Finally it was recognised that the roads could not he built and maintained out of revenue and that loans would have to he resorted to. There were several ways of raising money. There was what was known as the “Buffalo” system. Under this svsthe property holders on each side each paid a third and a third was paid by the general community. In addition any districts could constitute themselves paving districts for the purposes of road work. There were other and similar methods resorted to to meet the cost of road construction. There were several recognised methods of bituminous road surfaces. There was sheet asphalt, bituminous concrete and Topeka pavement, among others. The development of bituminous pavement followed long years of experiment. What was aimed at was to retain the good qualities of sheet asphalt an.l overcome its weaknesses. The sand in the sheet asphalt could not withstand the traffic. The harder an asphalt was at the start, the shorter its life. He detailed the experiments that had been made in securing a better pavement in which the aggregates were larger and which approached witiiin 12 per cent of the density of solid stone. Still the surfacing was not as good as was wanted. What was wanted was to provide a surface that was watertight, and that at the same time provided a sufficient cushion to prevent the larger aggregates being shattered by the heavy traffic. There were a number of temporary halts on the way to success. After many successive improvements there had been evolved a wearing surface that had the greatest stability at the bottom, where it was needed, and the greatest resilience at the surface. The question of when they should cease trying to keep the macadam roads in order and proceed with one of the other surfaces was one in |

which experience must only guide, Jt was hard to say when the one should he dropped and the other undertaken.