Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-05-21
CONCRETE ROADS WINNING fAYaR

zens of Honolulu who are actively interested iii
street and rpad-building problems, for their
pockets have been hit early and often to pay Tor
highways handy worth the name
Not long ago there good deal Of agita
ton for road-laboratory to be established un-
der the department of public works. That Ho-
noluu could benefit by some expert advice in
roadbuilding is evident from even a casual in
spection of one piece of highway in the new belt
read system, the Heea section. Complaints of
gross incompetence in the building of this road
are coming faster every day If half of the re-
ports are true, Honolulu has tossed off good
many thousand dollars that might have been
saved
The state of Oregon, after long and costly eX-
perience with incompetent road-builders has
worked out system of expert advisory assist
ance that has revolutionized the construction of
highways in the state The dean of the state uni
versity school of engineering is an official adj
wiser for the state and his school conducts Sc
ries of practical tests, both of paving mixtures
suited to various types of road, and of the roads
themselves after construction. 1t is now of very
great local interest to know that Oregon is
abandoning macadam road construction and1
adopting mixture of concrete, using a native
volcanic soil element which has been called
"puzzolan". According to the Concrete Era,
which indorses the use of the new mixture as far
superior to macadam, the cost of barrel of the
blended cement is SLID in Portland. The samel
journal declares that macadam pavement is rap
idly falling in disfavOr all over the country The
state of New York has spent $65, 900 uponl
macadam roads; but few months ago, in popu-
lar election, $50,00O,000 was voted which will bel
used in tearing up the macadam roads and re-
placing with concrete. A curious fact is thati
macadam roads were the factors which made pos
sible the adoption of power traction includingI
mechanical trucks and automobiles, to the coun-
try; and now it is the mechanical transportation
agents which are tearing macadam to pieces, and
necessitafing heavier type of road construction.
This is eventually to be concrete.
Macadam roads in Oregon, particularly nl
Lane county, cost to lay 51.3 cents a squareI
yard; in Massachusetts, not including contract
or's profit estimated at 20 per cent, 6-inch mac
adam cost "a z cents; and in New York the same
costs 81 cents. But the upkeep is the expensiveI
feature of such roads. OF course this varies un-
der local conditions Estimates range from G.S2l
cents per square yard per annum to SO cents al
yard.
The annual cost of maintenance OF macadamj
in Paris is said to be onethird of the cost each
year. That is to say, a macadam road must bel
rebuilt every three years. The figures, collected
by the United States office of public roads make
the average cost of maintenance in this country
ST. cents a yard year, and double this for BIZ
luminous macadam.
sMaintenance figures published only fewl
years ago now appear ludicrous," declares DR..
E. H. McAlister, the state adviser above referred
to. Massachusetts thought that it would bel
able to maintain its macadam roads indefinitely
at 3 8 cents; in three years the cost has scared
to-57 cents, and now the attempt to maintain
macadam roads has been practically abandoned,
and all sorts of surfaces patented and otherwise
are being tried out in the hope of saving some of
the many millions of dollars which the state has
put into macadam roads.
ssThe mileage of improved roads in Oregon is
relatively insignificant Traffic is small because
no large traffic is possible thus maintenance
here is still low. But with the expected develop
ment of the state it is safe to say that within the
next five years the figures here will have passed
the cost reached in so many other places.
at is my purpose to compare the cost of con-
crete with that of macadam Four inches of con-
crete will withstand a greater strength than six
inches of macadam. On the average, where traf-
fic is not unusually congested four inches of con-
crete is sufficient"