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

Thomas Calverley,

Thomas Halliday,

William Dowdeswell,

J. M. Cripps,”

With permission of the Committee I will relate what I stated to the trustees, upon those resolutions being read to me; that I considered that sum as extremely liberal, and quite sufficient for one small trust to give a general surveyor, and were Epsom one trust in a district, such a sum would be quite sufficient for their proportion of the salary of a general surveyor; but standing alone, and divided from all other trusts of which I had the management, and separated also by the London roads, the necessity of my father’s travelling from Bristol and residing some time at Epsom, and of so much being required to be done the first year in a new trust, that sum did no more than repay the actual expenses incurred. It will be obvious to the Committee that such a trust as Reading, consisting of six miles only, distant from Bristol eighty miles, and from London forty miles, and anticipating an equal liberality on the part of the commissioners there, no sum such a trust could be justified in giving to a general surveyor could repay even a moiety of the expense of superintendance; the reward for my services, then, must be looked for in the convincing proof that my father’s principles of road-making are, if possible, more applicable, and more beneficial in a trust where the materials are very bad than where they are good: my only object in troubling the Committee with these observations, is to show that unless a district of roads are united, the expense of a general superintendence would not be paid by any salary such trust could be justified in giving.

Can you state to the Committee the nature of the materials which you have employed in the different roads under your care?—At Epsom there are flints; at Reading a very small, foul gravel, with a thick adhesive loam attached; at Waltham Cross, on the Cheshunt roads, small foul gravel; towards Ware, flints; on the Wades-mill trust, flints; on the Royston trust, flint, gravel, and blue permet stone; at Huntingdon, flint, and gravel; Egham, flint and gravel.

Is there any particular method which you have employed out of the common practice, for making use of these materials?—I have bestowed great labour, care and attention in the preparation of these materials in the pits, and in their separation previous to their being brought upon the roads; and also much labour and care for a length of time after their being laid upon the road, until it became perfectly smooth, hard and level.

Can you state to the Committee the probable future expense of keeping these roads in repair, after they have once been put into good order, as compared with the annual outgoings under the old management?—I am of opinion that the expense of maintaining these roads in good condition will be considerably less than the former expenditure; for the reason, that the better a road is, the less the wear; and that there will be a less quantity of materials required, when properly prepared, than were formerly used, when they were brought to the road in a very foul and improper state.

Can you state generally, whether the proportion of labour, materials and cartage that you have described upon the Epsom trust, agrees with the same proportion upon the other roads under your management?—On some of the other roads, the proportion of labour to cartage will be found greater than upon the Epsom road. At Cheshunt, in five months, during which the roads have been put into good repair, I have expended the sum of 800l. forty of which alone was paid for cartage. Upon the Wades-mill trust, out of 600l. expended, not a sixpence was paid for cartage. Upon the Royston roads, where I have spent 500l. not any of it was paid for cartage. Upon the Huntingdon roads, I have spent 20l. a week, the whole of which has been paid in labour. At Reading, during eight months, 500l. were laid out, 400l. of which were paid for labour.

Is it your opinion, that the proportion of labour, wages, and cartage, is likely to continue the same, in the future reparation of the roads?—I am of opinion they will; because there will be an increase of labour, in the preparation of the materials, previous to their being brought to the road; and also in the formation of the road after they are laid on. By a more careful and proper preparation of the materials, a much less quantity will be required to uphold the roads than formerly; I am, therefore, of opinion, that the proportion of labour to cartage will continue the same.