PETROLETHIC ROADS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2454, 19 March 1909, Page 2

PETROLETHIC ROADS

OIL AND DIRT FOR STREET PAVING. Tho value of the use of crude petroleum for road-making purposes has long been recognised, as oil possesses many binding properties when associated with dust and road metal. It forms a coating on highways that is impervious to water and so preserves the no of the roadway, The use- of oil has been tried with great success on many Australian streets and roads, but perhaps nowhere in the world is petroleum so largely used for .roadmaking purposes as in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California. The potrolethic road is firm, resilient, waterproof, almost noiseless, develops neither dust or mud and is impervious to frost. Its first 5 cost does not exceed, in America, half the cost of macadam, being estimated at one dollar a square yaid, and tho cost of maintenance is. equally low in comparison. A “Times” • reporter was yesterday shown an illustrated booklet containing photographs of hundreds of miles of oiled- roads, and they appeared to be perfectly smooth, freo from dust, and in every way ideal highways, and upon one of these roads, tho booklet, states, a motor car has obtained tho high speed of sixty miles an hour wih scarcely any dust being raised. The best paved cities in the United States have all adopted petrolithic street formation, and the question of using crude petroleum on Gisborne sreets might well be considered by the lo*al Borough authorities. The petrolithic roads arc formed by special machinery and since tho invention of the “Petrolithic Rolling Tramper” a revolution has been accomplished in the making of oiled dirt roads. The road is ploughed up to give it a proper crown, then the tramper is used to pack tho earth until it is as solid as a brick. The tramper will even make a good road with nothing but dirt and water. The trampers from one to five or more are rollers, with large ridges, attached to a traction engine, and do splendid work, as they pack the earth right through, and do not merely form a firm crust on the top. The oil is sprinkled on from a large tank on

a vehicle, and after the tramper lias been over the road a few times, the sur face is as smooth and as firm as a fcjliard table, will cany any weight of traffic, and has the appearance of a perfectly laid asphalt road.