NEW IDEAS WANTED FOR DOCK ROADS
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
IF dock congestion is to be avoided, 1 fresh ideas on the layout of approach roads must be produced when the building or rebuilding of docks is being considered. Mr. R. T. Crake put forward this view to the Merseyside branch of the Industrial Transport Association last week.
Road approaches to many docks were inadequate because no one had anticipated when they were built the volume of present-thy traffic. Shipowners were operating larger vessels. Before the war, the average cargo liner was 4,000 tons gross; today the average was nearer 10,000 tons. The result was that more lorries converged on the berths and stevedores had to work harder.
Stevedores had been unable to take advantage of mechanization because of the variety of cargoes. If the use of pallets were to be promoted, it must start with the manufacturers of goods. Vehicles carrying palleted goods might be accorded priority in a queue of lorries waiting to deliver to a ship.