New Roads for Old
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
MANY delightful old-country lanes are disappearing in the greatroad improvement schemes which have been rendered necessary by the growth of Modern motor traffic, and schemes 16 progress in the County of Middlesex are typical of those in hand in other counties. Even within a few miles of London, particularly in the neighbourhood of Wembley Park, where the British Empire Exhibition is being built, quite old 12-ft. and 13-ft. carriage-ways are being widened to 50 ft: and .60 ft. to accommodille the traffic of the 20thcentury high roads and the exceptional taxi, motor and omnibus traffic which is anticipated in the summer of 1924.
Some el the local authorities engaged in this work are doing their best to retain old beauty-spots and preserve the woodland features wherever possible, and in many eases trees are being. transplanted. What is happening inside the park is balin,ertIng it/ the country lanes outside, aIttfough the work-'-on which 2,000 workmen are employed throughout the county—may be done a little more ruthlessly: In proportion to its acreage, the Middlesex County Council is said to be spending more on road reforms than any other county authority. Arterial road work in hand is estimated to cost 1,361,753, and widening of roads £441,899. On the Great West Road over li1,000,000 will be spent. Other
schemes will cost over £500,000. The work in the neighbourhood of Wembley Park, Kingsbury and Neasden includes the following i—Dudden Hill Lane, to be widened to 50 ft. • Neasden Lane, to be widened to 60 ft.; Forty Lane (a little country lane with a 12-ft. carriage-way), to be widened to 60 ft.; Kingsbury Lane, to be widened to 60 ft.; Wenibley Park Drive, to be fit for highway traffic ; Park Lane, to be made up and widened with not less than 24-it, carriage-way; Wembley Hill Road, to be made up and widened up to 52 ft.
These roads or lanes link up, for traffic purposes, with the Great West Road and with the new North Way—sanctioned by the Ministry of Transport—from Barrow Road to Finchley, and then northward. Local private roads—like Raglan Gardens and Station Approach—arc to be made up to 40 ft. wide.
Work is already well advanced on some of the roads, financial aid having been granted by Lord St. David's Committee under the Government scheme for works of public utility. In the neighbourhood of Wembley Park the amount being spent on the public highways alone is 2120,000, towards which the Middlesex County Council is contributing 224,000.
Along these capacious and wellsurfaced roads many new bus and train services will be run during the period of the Great Exhibition to supplement the railway facilities.
'Three of the lanes—Willesden Lane, Dudden Hill Lane and Neasden Lane= form one of London's old traffic outlets. The construction of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley demands the widening of these roads and lanes, with the exception of Willesden Lane. The construction of the roadway will be of tar macadam for the entire lg miles, with 10-ft. wide pathways on each side, thus giving a 40-ft. carriage-way to the 60-ft. road and a 30-ft, carriage-way in the 50-ft length. A few figures relating to excavations and materials to be used under this contract may be of interest:—Excavation, 16,600 yards; filling, 7,900 yards; brickwork, 121 rods ; cart away, 8,700 cube yards; concrete, 1,380 cube yards ; 4-ft. tar macadam, 7,462 super yards; kerbing, 4,766 lineal yards ; 2-ft. artificial paving, 7,051 super yards ; hardcore, 8,624 cube yards; 3-in, gravel paths, 6,634super yards. In order to give as mach relief as possible to unemployment on this -dontract, 80 per cent, of the men will be drawn from the local Labour Exchanges, with the exception of the bridge over the Midland and South Western Junction Railway, where a greater part of the work is brickwork, on which about 50 per cent, of local labour will be employed.
The estimated cost of the completed scheme for these two roads—viz., Dudden Hill Lane and Neasden Lane—is approximately £60,000.