CONCAVE STREETS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10013, 8 April 1910, Page 4

CONCAVE STREETS.

A correspondent writing in a London paper makes the bold statement that nearly every street in modern towns is constructed on the wrong principle—,that is. it is made convex instead of concave in shape. Were town roads slightly concave, he says, there would be no mud near the pavement at all. As, things are now, the pavement is nearest the lowest nart of the road, whereas it should be at the highest point of the road. A concave road would also enable slow traffic to keep,quite spontane-' osly to the highest, j and, therefore. the easiest part of the road for the horse to pull its, load. Another disadvantage of convex roads is that every heap of refuse is swept up close to the edge of the pavement in some cases being actually deposited in part of the.pavement, and, it thus blocks up the gullies, and drains, and even floods the pavement with water wlhen the street is. being washed, or a sudden storm ol rain descends. Smells, too, if any arise, from the gratings, are close to the houses and the doors leading into them. In a concave street they would be as far away as possible in the centre of the roadway. Cabstands for horse vehicles, it is true, are gradually be-, coming things of the past, but they may yet for some years be sources of* nuisance and pollute many of our roads with manuie. which, were the gutters in the centre instead of at the sides, would soon pass away into the proper drains, without run-

ning over the road at each side. It a few cases in London, special drains have been made fur this purpose, and a portion if the road to thie extent has been made concave. But these instances r.ve few and far bet tween. The result of ' 'e old-fashioned

: , convex construction h that all dirty 1 water and mud thus collects on the ; sides where the pedestrian passes, and at, a point also where travellers alight when descending from vehicles or driving up to houses or shops ifor business or pleasure. A gulf of liquid mild sotae two or three inches in depth often separates the pavement from the roadway., .These, ; are some ef the inherent disadvant- / at.es 'of the, convex system ,qf .jroack, making in towns, as regards,wajrI farers and frontagers. In addition/ j is. always, the question of e,xI pense to be .considered, and it is ob- ' vious that with a concave street one drain would serve instead of two, with one set of and qnp systern q/ (/ ccnin ecting sewers I with them in sewers beneath. In there is everything to be said in favour of concave streets in

towns, and very little in favour of the present convey form, i