Abstract
GOOD progress is being made in the construction of express highways (autobahnen) in Germany. An article in Roads and Streets gives an illustrated description of some of these highways and incidentally gives a photograph of part of an old Germanic plank road, built about 1000 B.C. and excavated a year ago at Bremen. The first 1,000 miles of the express highway has been completed. Most of it consists of a lawn strip 15 feet wide bordered by traffic lanes 25 feet wide on each side, the sides of the whole road having ‘shoulders’ sloping upwards. Trees and shrubbery are planted on the centre strip and on the shoulders. The shrubbery in the centre strip protects the driver largely from the glaring headlights of cars travelling in the opposite direction. Densely wooded areas are relieved at intervals by small clearings giving views of distant landscapes. There are no crossings, viaducts or subways being provided so as to permit continuous and fast travel. Twelve of the German universities have laboratories for testing road building material. At Braunschweig there is a test track about 1,000 feet in diameter where tests are carried out on different types of surfaces under traffic conditions. The effects of the velocities of the vehicles on different types of tyres and the abrasion of the roads are all studied practically. The testing of materials for the eastern section of Germany, which is separated from the rest of Germany by the Polish Corridor, is done in the Free City of Danzig. It is hoped that the political difficulties which this Corridor will present to through traffic will soon be overcome.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Express Highways in Germany. Nature 136, 429 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136429c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136429c0