I am not sure whether you are right in the
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general tone Ji your article, which I take it means that it would be a 400d thing if macadam were in a great many cases exchanged for wood pavement. 1 know that this was the opinion of many surveyors up to a recent date, but I think it is an ..pinion which should now be put forward with some reserve, fur this reason. At one time, when macadam could only be ...arried out in the old way, there was no doubt that, so soon ae the cost of upkeep of a macadam road became so heavy, awing to traffic and watering, that it cost 10.1. ur upwards per sq. yd. per annum to maintain it, it was easily provable that it, would pay the road authority to apply for a loan to lay down wood pavement, as it could be shown that, even under unfavourable circumstances, the cost of maintaining wood pavement, and at, the same time giving the public all 111G advantages of comparative silence, good surface and so ..n, need never with reasonable management exceed the above figure of lOci. per sq. yd. per annum. No doubt, the Castlenau Road that you mention was an exceedingly-badly made road is a macadam road, and, now that it has concrete foundations put in with superposed wood blocks, and has the geed luck to have little else than motor traffic on it, it will be for a long time to come a very-satisfactory highway, and be maintained it a cost little if any in excese of 10d. per annum, if this be averaged over a long period of years. " But we have now reason to believe that, if the Barnes Urban District Council had, instead of applying for a loan to put down wood pavement, been able to avail themselves of an improved macadam asphalt, such as is now laid on the Embankment between Westminster Bridge and Charing Cross, they could have done it at a lower figure, and the cost per annum, averaged over a similar period, would have been 2d. or 3d. less—possibly as low as 7d. per sq. yd. per 4111111111). FO inat the saving that could he shown would be still greater than that which has accrued by the use of weed. " I need only call your attention to the rase of a road far more heavily trafficked than Castleman Road ; that is the road between Wandsworth and Kingston, which used to cost.in .1ticling scavenging, 20d. per sq. yd. per annum. but which, a!though only a macadam road carefully made and then carefully tar-sprayed every year, has now had its annual cost, including scavenging, and including tar-spraying. reduced to 100.. whilst it is practically certain that by improved methods of laying the macadam the maintenance. taken by itself. is likely hi future to be cut down to the 7d. figure ibove mentioned.
" Wood pavement, although it gives a very-perfect road during the first few years of its life, is a had road during the
three or four years previous to complete renewal of the blocks. This is due to the fact that there must be in every consignment a certain number of blocks cut from the upper parts of the trees, and which in practice are found not to wear so well as those cut from points nearer to the roots of the trees. These top-wood blocks must always be irregularly disposed over the road surface; they form weak places, the road wears into holes at these points, and no one can fail to observe how difficult it is to patch them, or to make a good job of a wood pavement that begins to show such holes.
" With tar-macadam asphalt, the case is different. There is no reason why the road should not be made perfectly homogeneous over its entire surface, and any holes or depressions which show themselves can be cut out and replaced in such a manner as to show no signs of patching, and to render the surface as perfect as when first, laid down. Moreover, such a surface has advantages. It is more silent, more sanitary, more easily washed and entirely free from dust formed cut of the wend fibre as it grinds away. It is believed also to be freer front tendency to cause sideslip."