WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
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 cover

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

Chapter 4: INTRODUCTION.
By John Loudon McAdam
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

Engineering & TechnologyHistory - British

About This Book

A detailed critique of contemporary road-making practices argues that poor supervision, unqualified surveyors, and fragmented local trusts cause waste and defective roads. It outlines practical principles for constructing durable surfaces using layers of broken stone, stricter oversight, and the appointment of skilled, responsible officers to manage funds and repairs. The author calls for legal and administrative reform, including central county control and clearer responsibilities to prevent misapplication of trust funds. An appendix compiles parliamentary committee findings and evidence to support the recommendations and illustrate common failures in road administration.

INTRODUCTION.

The present very defective state of the Turnpike Roads and Highways in the United Kingdom, and the continual and apparently unlimited increase of the Toll Duties, are the considerations, which have given rise to the publication of the following remarks.

Of the value of the information contained in them, the intelligent reader will be the most competent judge; the author can only venture to assure him, that the few facts brought forward in the course of the work have been most carefully authenticated; that the opinions advanced are the result of much thought, and patient investigation; that whatever may appear theoretical, has, for the most part, been already reduced to practice; and that where practice has been wanting, a long experience of the evils arising from the present system, and not the mere love of innovation, has been the motive for the suggestion of the remedies proposed.

These, however, the author gladly submits to the good sense and candour of the public; only requesting, in the words of a celebrated writer, that whoever favors him with a perusal, will not judge by a few hours reading of the labours of nearly thirty years.

In the following chapters, the subject of Roads will be considered under three principal heads:

The mode of making Roads;

The Commissioners, and Officers employed under them, for this service,

and

The care of the Finances:

Which has appeared to the Author the most clear and comprehensive arrangement.