OCR Text |
Show SJ- EMffi TO EE WOT OfW SPCC0TC3, EDI ; SPOTLESS TTMMSffiEl Plana of Second avenue boosters have progressed so far that not only. is a smooth thoroughfare now demanded, but a dustless one as well Second avenue is to be macadamized soon. Already j the residents along the street are discussing dis-cussing means to keep the boulevard : for such it win be, piratically speaking speak-ing clean. . - . Among the plans discussed is the adoption of the tar process. It is estimated esti-mated in France that the increased durability of the roadway when treated by this process results in an annual saving of 25 per cent in the cost of maintenance, notwithstanding the additional addi-tional expense of tar treatment. Simi lar results have been shown by engineers engi-neers in America who have studied the subject. .It is asserted that in this country in 1906 about 800.000 yards were treated with a tar composition called tarvia, and that the result was invariably successful, even under heavy automobile traffic. An excerpt from the Government report re-port of tests at Jackson, Tenn., is as follows: ' Penetrates ths Surface. "After more than seven months, including in-cluding the winter months of 1905-6, the tarred streets and roads are still in excellent condition. They are hard, smooth, and resemble asphalt, except that they show a more gritty surface. The tar forms a Dart of the surface proper and is in perf eefbond with the macadam'. Sections cut from the street show that the tar has penetrated from one to two inches, ana the fine black lines seen in the interstices between the individual stones show that the mechanical me-chanical bond has been reinforced by the penetration of the tar. The tar is a matrix into which the stones of the surface sur-face are set. forming a conglomerate or concrete. A second coating applied a year after the first would require much less tar that the first, as the interstices inter-stices of the rock would then be filled with tar. "Though a fine sandy powder wears off. as in the case of asphalt, a tarred street is dustless in the same sense that an asphalt street is dustless. These streets have been swept regularly and the city government is in favor of treating treat-ing all pf the street swith "tar. The cleaning that would soon ruin an ordinary ordi-nary macadam road does not injure the tarred surface, , as the stones are not torn up or disturbed. The tar itself has antiseptic properties, hence its use would be beneficial both as a germicide and as a means of securing cleanliness." cleanli-ness." It is said that the authorities at Jackson have announced that they favor the use of tarvia on every macadam street or roadway within their jurisdiction, juris-diction, and a large number of cities have expressed their intention of continuing con-tinuing and extending the use of this tar composition on their macadam roads. Success in Pittsburg. Asked to test the tarvia treatment as a means for laving dnst, the Pittsburg, Pitts-burg, Pa., authorities selected Grant Boulevard as a street that would severely severe-ly try the merits and expose any demerits de-merits of this material, because the weight of the business traffic and t.lie number of automobiles passing over this street are said to be more than on streets where stone block of other very durable pavement has been deemed necessary to endure the wear, because this, boulevard is very steep in places, and because its surface 1b scoured by laree quantities of water. It is commonly reported that the dust nuisance there was so bad that it menaced men-aced the life of the automobilist, and that in at least one case grave injury was caused by a cloud of dnst thrown np by one automobile so blinding the driver of a following machine that he steered into an open trench, with disastrous disas-trous results. Application of the tarvia process is said io have made the boulevard practically prac-tically smooth where it was before very nneven, and to have bound the top dressing of screenings, kept the dust down and prevented scouring by storm water. It is asserted that if this process failed to do all any one of the city authorities au-thorities hoped it would do the failure was in that it did not make a new road of an old one, nor put a macadam road into such condition that it would stand a traffic for which stone blocks or oth er exceedingly t durable pavement is commonly provided. |