Concrete Roads
and Their Construction

CHAPTER II CONCRETE ROADS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM B. PROVINCIAL ROADS Berkshire Northbrook Street, Newbury.—Northbrook Street is the main, business street of Newbury, and, being part of the main road between the Midlands and Southampton, bears a fairly heavy traffic of a general character. This road, which was laid in the spring of 1920, is 440 yds. long, and the width of the roadway, from kerb to kerb, is 45 ft. ; this enabled the reconstruction to be carried out in half widths without undue inconvenience. Construction.—The particulars of construction are as follows :— Foundation.—The foundation is that of the original macadam road, and is fairly well consolidated. Course.—For the concrete road itself the one-course method was adopted, and the thickness of the slab is 8 in. Aggregate and Proportions.—The materials were mixed by hand in the following way : A measuring box of one-third cu. yd. capacity was employed, and this was filled, Once with 2-in. Clee Hill granite, Once with 1-in. to |-in. Clee Hill granite, and Once with sharp sand and flint grit. This gives 27 cu. ft. of aggregate, to which was added 6 cu. ft. of Portland cement, resulting in a 4| to 1 mixture. Reinforcement.—The subsoil here is peat, and it was solely with a view to counteracting its effect upon the road surface that reinforcement was employed. For a like reason the concrete was treated as a slab, and the reinforcement placed 2| in. from the under side. 10