Remarks on the Present System of Road Making / With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the Evidence

by John Loudon McAdam

As the proprietor of mail and stage coaches, has your attention been directed to the state of the roads over which they travel?—Yes, it has.

Inform the Committee whether you think the roads are in such a state of repair as they might be, under proper management, with the advantages they possess?—Taking them generally, I think they are not.

Do you consider that the amount of the tolls at present received would be sufficient to place them in a state of good repair, under proper management?—From what information I have been able to obtain of the sums which the gates are let for upon several trusts, it is my opinion that the money so received is quite sufficient to put them in a very good state. For instance, there is one trust, which is called the Daventry trust, leading from Old Stratford to Dunchurch; their tolls, I understand, produce more than 100l. a mile per annum. Very little improvement has been made in that trust; and the roads are very unsafe, and in a bad condition altogether.

Do you consider that that arises from want of proper materials, or want of proper skill in making use of them?—From both. The materials that they have in that neighbourhood, in my opinion, are not good; and the people that they employ upon the roads are not equal to the task, and therefore they are very much neglected. The surveyors and the men that work under them are insufficient.

Do you know of any instances where similar disadvantages have been surmounted by proper skill and ingenuity?—I believe I can state that upon one particular trust that has been the case. I believe they call it the Hockliffe trust. It is but a short distance, but very great improvements have been made upon it. The great improvements that have been made there, I am informed by several of the commissioners, have been done through their skilful and attentive surveyors. They have improved that trust very much indeed. I believe I can mention another road out of London that has been much improved, I mean the Essex road, (their surveyor being a clever man, and competent to understand his business,) between Whitechapel church and Brentwood.

Are there any particular defects in the management of the roads generally, which you think might be remedied, that you can point out to the Committee?—In the first place, there may be great improvements by the proper formation of the roads. I know, in some places, particularly from here down to Colney, where there is a clayey bottom, and upon that line of road there are a great many land springs; those springs frequently work up through the gravel, and injure the road very materially. When that is the case I consider that they should under-drain the road, and take away these land springs, which would be the means of having the roads firm and hard, much harder than they are now.

Is it not a common defect to place the gravel on the road without being sufficiently sifted or washed?—Very much so.

Do you not consider it as a bad system, likewise, to place the gravel so much in the centre of the road, thereby rendering it of too great convexity?—Yes, certainly. I think it is laid generally too thick and too high in the middle. There is no necessity for the roads being rounded so much.

Have you known any accidents to have arisen from the steepness of the road?—Yes; several accidents with my coaches, as well as those of other people, in consequence of the road being laid so very high in the middle.

Is not that shape of the road likewise attended with a disadvantage in the draft of the carriage?—I consider it so, inasmuch as it flings the weight too much on one side.