ASPHALT ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1663, 18 January 1917, Page 4

ASPHALT ROADS.

Motorists interviewed by a Manawalu Times representative are most enthusiastic- concerning the advanced methods of road-making followed by the Taranaki, Eltham, Stratford, and Hawera Counties, with a preparation of tar procurable in Wanganui at 10d per gallon, whence for 100 miles the railage at : ‘d per gallon, and shingle at Gs per cubic yard, the county can make a perfect road at £325 per mile. Being impervious to water the flat camber of one in thirty is used, thus obviating the grinding action of the high camber on metal and tyres, and allowing the whole width to be used as a running surface. The cost of maintenance is reduced by about £l5O per annum. The saving on lyres and petrol is probably 75 per cent, or more.

I. T. Hurst, an eminent engineer, gives the following formula: —“A cart with wheels four feet in diameter requires force to move it as follows: On loose gravel one-twelfth its weight; on hard macadam one-forty-fifth; on asphalt one-eighti-eth.”

One of the motorists interviewed wondered that in the face of all this that our local bodies did not borrow to their utmost limit at 5 or even 6 per cent, and-invest it in asphalt roads, which on the testimony of several county clerks showed a direct saving of 50 per cent, per annum. It would be good to hear from Palmerston representatives who recently visited Taranaki, but they were strangely reticent on the question.