ONLY PERMANENT ROADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 516, 20 November 1928, Page 13

ONLY PERMANENT ROADS

CONCRETE ADVOCATED AUSTRALIAN EXPERT’S TOUR •‘This is an age of road transport and the concrete road. Concrete is the only permanent material discovered up to the present that is suitable for road construction.” This opinion was expressed by Mr. Charles W. Lloyd, a member of the National Roads Association of Australia, who is a passenger by the Aorangi on his way to attend the Pan-Ameri-can Road Congress at Cleveland, Ohio. “City thoroughfares should also be constructed in concrete where the roads are not interfered with by subterranean drainage,” he continued. “For the secondary road the bitumen penetration process could be used.” In America, Canada, England and Europe, Mr. Lloyd intends to investigate road transport, while he is on his present tour, and during the Aorangi’s stay in Auckland he will investigate Auckland’s roading schemes. Yesterday afternoon he discussed several questions with the Mayor, Air. George Baildon, and later made a tour of the city and suburbs roads with the assistant city engineer, Air. J. Tyler. “FINEST IN THE WORLD” A good concrete road would stand for 60 years without repair, said Air Lloyd. The samples of cement which had been down on Auckland’s roads for seven years were among the finest samples he had seen anywhere in the world. The fine class of local blue metal, together with good cement, made lasting concrete. Mr. Lloyd said the paving of concrete roads with bitumen had been condemned, as the better road was covered, and bitumen always developed a wavy surface. Also all material for concrete roads could be obtained locally, whereas bitumen had to be imported from America, and was not satisfactory. OYSTER SHELL ROADS He maintained that bitumen was not necessary even on secondary roads, and mentioned the light traffic roads round New Orleans, which had been laid down in oyster shells. The shells were spread over the road, well watered, and then crushed and consolidated by a heavy roller, the lime in the shells providing the necessary binding. The roads were firm and would stand considerable traffic. Better roads would provide cheaper transport, said All*. Lloyd. The roads had once yielded to the railways, but now, with the advent of motor transport, they were winning back what they had lost.