Page:Remarks on the Present System of Road Making (1823).djvu/176

 You consider it advantageous to lay on the materials when the road is wet?—I do, because the gravel adheres closer.

Considering the very great traffic upon the Whitechapel road, is it your opinion that it would be advantageous to pave any part of that road?—I think it would be desirable to pave it, within some feet of the footpath more particularly.

What breadth from the sides of that road would you consider it desirable to have paved?—About eleven or twelve feet from the footpath.

You would consider it a desirable plan to pave the sides of that road in preference to the centre?—Certainly.

For what reasons?—If the centre was paved, the light carriages would be very much annoyed; when the gravel road was good on the sides, the heavy carriages would go there, and the light carriages would be driven on the stones from the sides again; if the centre was paved the carters would be obliged to walk on that road to manage their horses, and would be considerably annoyed by carriages, horsemen, &c. passing: but if the sides of that road were paved, the carters would be enabled to walk on the footpath and to manage their horses without annoyance.

What is the shape of road which, from your experience, you would give the preference to?—I would have the road barrelled, and made so as that it would convey off the water in the severe weather in winter, when the roads are generally bad.

Which do you give the preference to, a road with a flat surface, or one that gradually declines from the centre?—I think a road which gradually declines from the centre is by far the most preferable, decidedly so.

What is the degree of the declivity or fall which you would recommend as the most desirable?—I have paid particular attention to the Whitechapel road, where it is of the width of 55 feet, and the fall from the centre to the sides is