ROAD MAKING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4593, 27 August 1923, Page 4

ROAD MAKING.

• ACTIVITY IN THE UNITED STATES Some impressions of a visit to the United States during the last couple of months were obtained last week from Mr J. T. Griffin, of Taranaki, associate in business with Mr A. A. Carson, of Wellington (says the Dominion). The visit was made primarily tp inquire into the timber trade, and the laying down of mads, after which he intended to go on to the British Empire Exhibition, but circumstances induced his return by the last trip of the Tahiti. Mr Griffin found conditions vastly different from what he tad anticipated. A big building boom was in evidence in California, concentrated at the great railway terminus at Saute Fe. In the desire to push business, large numbers of vacant building lots had been stacked with timber, so that the purchasers pf sections could erect their houses or business places directly they took possession. So great was the immediate demand that there was little building timber available for export. In making an inspection of the main highways of the States, Mr Griffin motored thousands of miles, ’ and thoroughly examined every modern system of rpadmaking adopted, and the effect of its use. He was given every facility for making examinations of the material and machinery used, and-he had it conclusively proved to him that bitumenised roads were superior to all others. The roads were laid down by special machinery, which mixed the preparation to be laid down, and, what was most impprtant, kept it at the temperatjure likely to secure the best results. Millions of dollars had been spent on exhaustive tests to prove the efficacy of different systems tried, but none of them compared favourably with bitumen.