Roads; their Construction and Maintenance

Abstract

THIS is a very practical and useful treatise on roads and their maintenance and may be read with great advantage by any intelligent road surveyor. After the dissolution of the turnpike trusts and the handing over of the roads to the charge of the ordinary highway surveyors the main roads of this country became much neglected. The power acquired by County Councils over the main roads, and of District Councils over other highways, has to a certain extent revolutionised the system of road management and a marked improvement has taken place. The use of the cycle and the motor-car, however, demands a much higher standard of efficiency than was ever before required. There is no doubt that the motor-car, as a means of locomotion and transport, has come to stay and will in future fulfil in many cases functions for which now it is deemed necessary to provide light railways and suburban tramways. For these machines to be used with comfort a clear and even road surface, free from mud and loose stones at all times of the year, is indispensable. The best steam-rolled macadamised roads do not fulfil these conditions. In this respect what are termed tar macadam roads, which have been adopted in a great many suburban districts, not only afford a good surface for traction but, being impervious to wet and not acted upon by frost, are clean and more economical than macadamised roads; they are easily repaired and there is an entire absence of loose stones, equally dangerous for horses and deleterious to rubber tyres. The authors speak favourably of this class of road and describe the system as growing in favour, but the cost as given in the book is higher than that at which they can be laid in the neighbourhood of provincial towns.

Roads; their Construction and Maintenance.

By A. Greenwell J. V. Elsden Pp. vii + 280. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1901.) Price 5s.