PROBLEM OF GOOD ROADS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 December 1920, Page 6

PROBLEM OF GOOD ROADS.

WHERE MAINTENANCE OOST3 NOTHING, VALUE OF BITUMINOUS SURFACE, At yesterday's meeting of the Taranaki County Council, Mr. W. J. Penn, who recently was in Canada and the 'United States with the Press delegation, addressed the councillors in regard to his investigations into road-making whilst abroad. During his travels Mr. Penn traversed the Portland Highway—one of the finest roads in the -world, and 102 miles in length. This road was laid down in 1915, and d/ring five years the maintenance cost was practically negligible and was incurred chiefly in clearing gravel slips, repairing drain-pipes, and such other incidental repairs. The cost per mile for surfacing the ISft. roadway was £3OOO. A street in Vancouver was laid down in 1909—a bituminous surface—and has cost nothing in maintenance for eleven years' traffic. Mr. Penn said he had motored over several purely concrete roads. Those that had been recently laid down appeared all right, but concrete wads of longer standing were one succession of cracks. Tar roads in Canada and the United States had to be maintained and repaired every two or three years. On the other hand the bituminous roads cost nothing for maintenance. In Boston were some of the most magnificent streets the speaker had seen. These roads had been down many years and had very heavy traffic upon them. Columbia Road in particular was regarded as the best-paved road in Boston. Six thousand six hundred miles of bituminous roads have been laid in 19 years.

If, for instance, the Carrington Road cost £'sooo per mile to lay with such a surface it would be a good business proposition. Wear and tear 'of motorcars, and the rate of consumption of benzine were some of the results of a better surface. Maintenance cost nothing. Concrete roads, especially where frost was experienced, were not satisfactory. If a depression occurred in the bitumen surface and water collected a little benzine was, poured in and ignited; then «. mixture of bitumen and sand was added. This was "ironed" down, and the repair work remained permanent. In Vancouver city the City Council had adopted a method of their own specification, similar to the bitumen method, but cheaper. Surfaces laid down by this method, however, had proved vastly inferior to the more expensive but more lasting bituminous roadwav.

The speaker remarked that he was the only one of the New Zealand Press delegates to accept the invitation of the Portland Chamber of Commerce to visit their town, and they accorded him every facility during the visit. The firm lia'd ample work offering in the States, but some time before the end of the war, when business was a little slow, they had contemplated sending a representative to New Zealand- to see whether there was any opening in the Dominion for carrying out work of the kind. On the signing of the armistice, however, there came a revival of road-making, and there was so much work to do that the company gave up the idea of sending a man to New Zealand. If any local body in New Zealand contemplated spending much money'on a road of this ua-tiuje they should! adrtainty «'eU a thoroughly experienced man to superintend the work for the first twelve months, and then a local engineer wno would work in conjunction with the expert during the early stages, could carrv on.

Mr. Penr. sajd he did not suggest that the .council should decide in a hurry to adopt this method of road-making, but he was convinced of its efficiency. If the council would send specimens of rock available locally for road-making with the cost at the' roadside the company would test the material and would also furnish an estimate of the cost of laying down a road here. If desired, experienced men would be found to superintend any work that was decided on in New Zealand. A plant cost from 10,000 to 12,000 dollars and was capable of doing a mile of road in nine days. On the Columbia highway 75 miles were covered' in 3| months, six .plants being used. He was so convinced that the roads he had ,seen were very much superior to any sort of tar-s'Faling or to the concrete road that he had no hesitation in recommending the council to go into the matter before embarking on any large roading expenditure. One of the slogans in Portland was to save the macadam. If a good macadam road was available, providing not less than four inches thickness, it would make a perfect foundation for this bitumen surfacing and would save the metal for all time. At the conclusion of Mr. Penn's remarks thp chairman said that the information supported any action taken so far by the council, as they had lately adopted a jjitumon surface for the roads. They already had in stock 1000 barrels and proposed to treat it for use on the county Mr. Connett. in conclusion, thanked Mr. Penn for the information placed before the council.