A Test Track for Heavy Vehicles.
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THIS heading may suggest a new kind of Brooklands or aloutthery, where we should be treated to handicap races for 10-ton tractors. • The facts are leas picturesque, however. The special committee atthe Prefecture in Paris dealing with all matters which concern heavy vehicles is at present studying the question of wear on street surfaces. It has been decided, with the consent and co-operation of the Public Works Department, to construct a stretch of roadway in the Bois sle Vincennes for testing purposes. One of the objects in view is to arrive, if possible, at a fair and reasonable adjustment of the taxes on industrial vehicles in relation to the damage which they do to the roads.
The track, which is already under construction, will have a variety of surfaces, wood blocks, macadam, stone setts, asphalt, etc. Lorries will be driven over it at the utmost speed of which they may be capable. They will also be violently braked, -skidded and
started away from rest suddenly ; other words, the lorries will be driven in the normal manner. adopted by the average French driver. On the track, however, these evolutions will he performed with the deliberate and avowed object of doing as much damage to the road surface as possible. The track has a total length of 700 metres.
The greater proportion of Paris streets is paved with wood blacks, which are made in the municipal filetory. The cost of labour and material has risen so much lately, however, that the authorities are searching for some less expensive form of paving_ This question will also be the subject of experiment on the track. At the moment asphalt, finds favour with the economists on the City Council, and for some years past they have been trying to get wood blocks replaced by asphalt whenever, a street was repaved. This action has roused many protests owing to the dangerous nature of the surface provided in wet weather. A few days ago an official skidding demonstration was arranged on a beautiful stretch of new asphalt in the Boulevard Victor. Traffic was stopped during the experiment, and, as the rain did not oblige, the road was sprinkled and rendered artificially greasy. The vehicles chosen for the trial comprised a powerful open touring car, a 3-ton lorry in the service of the Hotel de Ville and a meter water cart. The touring car was tried first over the prepared surface and braked first at 12 m.p.h„ then at 20 m.p.h., and lattly at rather over 25 m.p.h., The resulting snake dances were watched with great interest by the councillors and officials present, and the tail-first finish performed by the touring car was much admired. The two heavy vehicles behaved very much better on the whole, but the general impression gained from the experiment was distinctly UDfavourable to any further extension of the use of asphalt merely for the reason mentioned.