BETTER ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1993, 21 June 1919, Page 2

BETTER ROADS.

VIEWS OF MR. S, A. R. MAIR. • “Road-making Stones of Wellington and Taranaki” was the subject of a paper by Mr S. A. R. Mair, C.E., and, in his absence, read by Dr. J. A. Thomson, at a meeting of the Geological Section of the Philosophical Society at Wellington .on Wednesday evening. Mr Manr wrote that concrete and tar compounds were fast solving the road problem for cities and more important lines of communication, though for many years to come it was probable that the great majority of country road users would have to be content with gravelled or macadam roads, in pre-motor, days the ideal road. Ho insisted that the efficiency of a road was dependent equally upon the quality of material used, as upon the design and method of construction, and as the hitter increased in cost so it became more imperative to utilise only (he very best materials, notwithstanding that the total cost was again increased. Throughout the civilised world it was recognised that propelled and pneumatic-tired vehicles had coxae to stay, and roads must be built to accommodate them, and the whole art had been cast into the melting-pot, from which, we trust, woxxld arise a standardised system.

After dealing with the of stones suitable for road-making in n detailed technical manner, Mr Mair summarised his remarks, and in a classification of the various stones available placed them In the following order of quality as road atones: (1) Indurated slates or blue stone, (2) andesites and other igneous rocks, (3) organic limestone or shell rocks, (4) crystallised limestones, (5) indurated sandstones, (C) calcareous gravels. Over a large proportion of the area covered by the tertiary clays;' no road stone of any sort was available to the road-builder. It had, therefore, been'necessary at dimes to make artificial stone from the argillaceous beds of papa rock. The writer had during the last few years manufactured some 12,000 to 15,000 cubic yards of this material, and had successfully demonstrated that a first-class road stone could be made artificially. With extreme heat the papa could he calcined to a compact flint-rock, yet tough and durable and extremely high in bonding properties. However, for reasons of economy the general matrix turned out contains only 20 to 30 per cent, of first-rate material, the balance being only partly calcined and thus much inferior.

As transportation improved, the future would demand more attention to this aspect of the problem. He hoped to see before long a Dominion Association to promulgate belter roads by propaganda, and otherwise, and at no distant date a bureau of roads sot up by the General Government to propound and investigate the many problems connected therewith.

As to road stone, a feAV years would see this question acute, and it behoved all directly connected with road-building to do their utmost to first determine and locate the most suitable supplies and secure the same to the road-builders of the future, as upon the state of our roads the engineers Avere judged.