Road Surveyors as Users , of Heavy Vehicles.
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The use of lorries and tractors by road surveyors is clearly on the increase. We have, from time'to time, recorded satisfactory reports from the chief engineering officials of authorities such as,: for example, for the counties of Bedford; Elgin, Kent,' Perth, Suffolk and Tyrone, and for the .boroughs' of Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham,Blackburn,. Boltort, Bootle, Bradford, Burnley, _ BurtOn-on.-Trent; Bury (Lancs.), Chelsea, Cheltenham,' Denbigh, Devonport, Folkestone, Gateshead, Glasgow, Hall-. fax, Leicester, Liverpool, • Norwich, ., Surbiton, Wallasey, Wandsworth and Westminster.. One feels and knows, in respect of these users, that they are steadily building up a volume of . supportinedata, which cannot fail to be of the utmost importance as a means of leavening the'. general low level of .anireelation amongst Certain other Meal authorities,. -both in respect of "aotual, econemies in Work done, -and, what is more important, da to actual savings in high way maintenance under such traffic: One of the latest of the many interesting reports. which have been published by a county authority is that which concerns Bedfordshire. We reproduce it elsewhere in this issue. This particular report deals with the results which have been obtained with three 36-40 h.p. Commercars, and it is instructive to peruse the opinions of the executive officer, who has put forward admirable summaries of the outcome of over 90,000 miles of working on county roads.
We anticipate :that additional motor lorries will be required by the Bedford County Council, as soon as the war is over. It finds that nearly all its haulage can be done at " less than. one-half of the cast of horse haulage." Highly-iratifying economies have been realized, in competition both with horse. conveyance. and horse-cum-rail conveyance. It will be observed that the paper includes some infOrmative comments upon petrol_ storage. and distribution, whilst it concludes with the significant statement that " it is practical economy all round for a county to own its own fleet of lorries. The italics are ours. The closely-related bearing of alleged extra road maintenance, due to such ownership, was obviously considered, before the economy was classed as one " all round."
No economy can excel that. of securing good roads, to the nation. Our conternporary " The Surveyor" has much to say on thth point, we are glad to observe. It deprecates false' economies which are directed solely by a desire not to spend money, or by unpardonable short-sightedness which seeks to ignore both the traffic of the day and the extra cost hereafter.