Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-08-29
|MOLASSES Will
make GOOD ROAD
DECLARES WALL
City Engineer Positive That the
Experiment Viii Produce
Lasting Thoroughfares
SAYS. AUTOMOBILES WILL
NOT SUFFER ANY INJURY
Has Host of Arguments in Fa-
vor of New Departure in
Surfacing of Highways

yes, it is true am having a por-
{ ton of Kaiakaua avenue covered with
molasses,v admitted City and County
Engineer w. A. Wall this morning, and
he escorted representative of the
Star-Bulletin out to the affected high
way to show him how the thing is be-
ing done,
NO" said Engineer Wall. "the syrup
won't stick to automobile tires and
clog up motors. OF that I am positive.
But 1t will cling to the coral rock and
sand, will penetrate five or six inches
below the surface and make a firm.
smooth surface that win give you an
ideal motor highway. ! am confident
it will make the road surface as slick
as glass, and endure for two or three
years per application. In fact it Is
just the thing we have been needing
on Oahu thoroughfares =
The extent of ssugar-coated Kala-
kua" temporarily will be from the Wal
kiki end OF the parking strip to the
Lewis road, leading from the avenue
toward the beach g It, Is an ex-
pertinent, only the makai half of the
road getting the treatment now, but
If it proves satisfactory the other half
will be coated similarly and then all
the remaining coial-construction high
way will receive the same saccharine
coating. The present test has been
authorized by the road committee of
the board of supervisors, Petrie, Nc
Clellan and Markham.
Z Engineer Wall has a host of argu-
ments in favor Of the new departure
in highway surfacinE. He though at
first the idea was original, but since
the actual work of spreading the mol
asses began. last tuesday, he has
been told that this treatment has been
widely adopted in Cuba, where it
proved eficacious. One reason for at !.
tempting it here Is that the oil sur
facing has proven unsatisfactory, par
ticularly on coral roads the oil not
penetrating more than lone or two |
inches deep and later cauking the rock /
to break up in chunks. Molasses, on
the contrary, goes so deep that such
breaking is impossible, Wall says.
Moreover, molasses not bnly mixes
with water, but absorbs it frbm the air,
50 that water falling on sweetened
road surface will sink ins and pass
through, not loosening the material but
moisture, particularly in hot
weather, that will hold down the dust
Wall conceived the idea, he says,
from observing the action Of sugar and .
molasses spilled along the roadways S
at various mills and wharves on the
islands. In these instances ii seemed
to give remarkable results Then Nhe
Inat for years in some
places it has been customary to mix
molasses with lime and water to OBJ
tain the very hardest, rocklike ma
terials, and he figured that some SINH
liar result ought to be accomplished II
It were applied with coral, which con-
sists almost entirely of lime
Another argument In the new pro-
cess favor, If it proves at all salts
factory as a surface-mAker, Is that 1t
will cost only about half as much as
Dill. The original cost is about the
same as for oil, but Wall says an equal
will cover twice as much
ground. About ten per cent of Oahu's
highways are made of coral, and IL
he molasses treatment proves all
Wall claims for it, the process may be
applied on all such roadways, while
hereafter new highways, built OF coral
which is cheaper than rock construc1
ton, can be built To the exclusion OF
the latter.
Wall intends applying the treatment !
TO all of Kalakaua from the end OF the
parking strip out to Kapiolani Park,
kapiolani Park and thence
around Diamond Head.