Notes of the Day.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3601, 14 August 1912, Page 4

Notes of the Day.

A GIFT ROAD. Mr Thomas Coleman du Pont, millionaire and leading citizen of M ilmin gton, Delaware, United States of America, decided two years ago that ho ought to use some of his money for the benefit of the people of his State. He thought over many projects —a hospital, a technical training school and a big memorial fountain among others—hut finally he discarded them all, and decided that as the principal need of the State of Delaware was good loads, he would build a road from end to end of the State, a distance of about 100 miles, and build it so well that it would serve as an object lesson to the local authorities. The State Legislature put through an empowering Bill without hesitation. Mr Du Pont set about the preliminaries to liis great work. _ “Who are the best men I can get in the whole world to help me lay out this road?” he asked his consulting engineers. “Ernest Storm, of Brussels, Belgium, and Thomas Aitken, of Cupar, Fife, Scotland,” was the prompt reply. Mr - Du Pont engaged bot h experts, and placed Frank M. Williams, of New York, a roadmaker with a-world-wide reputation, in charge of the job. There were many problems

to be considered, drainage being the most serious.one. Cost was not to be considered in tins undertaking, and t was eventually decided to have the roadway sufficiently elevated to drain its'df Storms and Aitken fust laid a number of experimental sections oi different compositions, including concrete, oils, tars, asphalts and macadam This work oceuped six months, anil, when it was completed the sections were put into use for a whole winter season. In the following spring the experts had all the data they required to build a great highway 200 feet wide from the northern to the southern boundary of the State. Mr Du Pont, who has the advantage uf a thorough engineering training, was able to give valuable assistance to his engineers'. He devised a system of night surveying, in which observations were taken from lights m the air sent up by rockets and descending at the end of parachutes. He also devised a combination of automobile and tent wlirh provided his surveyors with a comfortable portable cam]). The work is still in progress, and the principal difficulty in the way is the exorbitant prices which are being asked bv landowners for the land required, prices based on the appreciation in the value of their properties which will lx; caused by the presence of the road.