ROAD – MAKING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4907, 25 November 1925, Page 4

ROAD - MAKING.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.

VIEWS OF ENGLISH AUTHORITY.

Under the auspices of the Wairarapa Automobile Association Lieuten-ant-Colonel G. Symonds, D. 5.0., an English authority on road-making, gave an interesting address at Carterton last week before a good audience, Mr W. Howard Booth presiding. Colonel, Symonds did. not prpfess to know all about roads. He said he was always learning, and had seen. I's or 16 countries and learnt aj little Id each. He knew of no countiy in which reading had been improved to such an extent as in England. In America they were laying concrete roads. In England there w.as a motor tax of £1 per horse-power which produced about £20,000 per annum, and this was utilised by the Ministry of Transport principally on new construction, widening, grading, surfacing, setting back hedges and poles, and improving corners. The actual maintenance of unreconstructed roads and the building of rural roads was for the charge of local bodies. There were many cases of ,the entire cost of a road being borne by the Government. The repairs and maintenance costs on roads were falling. America could not believe him when he said there were no complaints at the heavy motor taxation, but when we saw 1 the results, of roading in England to-day one would think it was. money well spent. Running costs were greatly reduced and travelling was more comfortable. The improvement of roads had completely washed out the speed limit. The limit of 20 miles an hour was still on the Statute Book, but it was hard to enforce. One of the crying needs of most of the countries he had passed through was the forming of a good roading policy. Where the Ministry of Transport supplied ' the money it supervised the work and saw that it .got value for the money.

It was" extraordinary to-day what good roading meant in England. Villages had been brought into closer touch with the towns, and this had resulted in the improvement of education. Push bicycles had increased last year by about 700 per cent. A read was being’made near Oriental. Bay, Wellington, and he had read a complaint that the road was .banked at the corner. Super-elevation of a road at a corner followed a. definite formula, considering the radius of the curve, the width of the road, and the .speed of the vehicle. A motorist thus felt the speed that the road was graded. It .was a perfectly rational and ■ sensible thing- to do; A map of Greater London roads was shown. In. the new Southendßoad; the corners were rounded off at allowing a motor' travelling at 25 miles an hour on a side road to. see traffic; on the mail! road .in time .to slow down before meeting it.*. In. America the comers were quite square, and traffic from iside roads was compelled., to stop before turning on to .th© "main road with consequent wear on br.akes and’ increased petrol consumption. Roads varied greatly in .type, costing from 7d per square yard) to 9s 6d and upwards. .

Replying to questions, the lecturer said that tar should not be put"on top of bitumen, but bitumen put on top of tar. .Tar and bitumen could be mixed ;at a temperature of from 35.0' to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit. Given a similar amount of traffic, a tarred road would need re-sealing every .two years, •as against a bitumen-sealing every three or four yeans. He wpuld not say that a sealed road was the best for country roads ; he would advise if he saw a certain road, but he would not say anything as to which was the best class, of road. I;t was a big mistake not to seal or grout a road which was costing £3OO per mile per annum upkeep.. Sealing would probably,save enough in maintenance to pay later on for a much better road. The lecturer was. accorded a vote of thanks.