CONCRETE ON THE ROADS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 August 1916, Page 2

CONCRETE ON THE ROADS.

CONCRETE ON THE FARM. \

Full Particulars of a Most Welcome Innovation, as supplied in a Pamphlet issued by the Portland Cement Company,Auckland.

(Continued from last week and to be continued weekly).

COST OF CONCRETE ROADS.

The general impression in this country is that concrete is too expensive for ordinary road mak- ' ing, because it is thought that it must be covered with a wearing surface of wood blocks, asj^Vtofc-* some other material to prWjpt slipping and other suijposed'lffsadvantages. As a matter of fact, it has been proved in actual practice that a concrete road is better and less slippery without these coverings, even on grades that would be unsafe with some of them. Many of the best concrete roads that have been constructed, and many hundreds of miles of them are now in use, have no ,J. covering of any kind beyond the^p' bare concrete, the surface of '$ which is sometimes roughened by drawing a birch broom across it while it is still soft. In most ' cases it is finished off with special wooden floats, which give tha \| surface a smooth, .yet holding, ' finish.

When one considers that the making of a water-tight macadamised road requires pretty well . all the essentials necessary for the making of a concrete road, except cement — i.e., graded broken stones or gravel, sand or screenings, the preparation of the sub-grade or foundation, the providing of proper drainage, rolling, top-dressing, and so forth—it will be realised that the comparative cost should not be so very much in favour of macadam, and actual experience proves that it is not.

Concrete roads, as a rule, cost' a little more, of course, because the work requires more care, takes more time, and more skilled labour; but without taking into \ consideration the great advantages of the concrete road —such as the absence of dust, the absence of mud, the smoothness of travelling, the saving fa. haulage and horseflesh, and the general all-round comfort because ' of these advantages—the saving in upkeep alone will pay for the difference in the cost of construction in a very short time. In 20 years the road will still be there, and the saving to the community in maintenance costs in that time will have made it a very cheap road indeed. Later on we shall give some figures based on actual knowledge to bear out this statement, but let us first consider what has actually been done in concrete road-making, and at what cost.

AN ENGLISH EXAMPLE. In England the war, and the economies it has entailed, has been responsible for putting a stop' to a lot of the activity in concrete road-making which was in evidence before the war, but a fair mileage has already been laid down, and in every case it would seem that results have been entirely satisfactory. In the November, 1915, issue of an English trade journal, " Concrete and Constructional Engineering," a number of English roads recently laid down in concrete are described and illusfc^ted. The following extracts T~&* give an idea of the' methSpSJfc) "" construction and the cost If '& reinforced concrete road from 6in to Bin thick. About half that thickness of reinforced concrete should be ample for an ordinal country road in tlr.s country, but, as a general rule, reinforcement is not necessary for country roads, the recognised safe road being from 5 to Bins of solid, concrete. [ No %