Road Administration
| Published date | 01 January 1939 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1939.tb03024.x |
| Date | 01 January 1939 |
Road
Administration
By
SIR
LEONARD
BROWETT,
K.C.B., C.B.E.,
Permanent
Secretary,
Ministry
of
Transport
HERE
are approximately
180,000
miles
of
public roads in Great
T
Britain. They display every known characteristic of the high-
way from the narrow country lane, the village street, or
the
congested
city street to the great modern artery with its dual carriageways,
cycle tracks, footpaths and verges.
Roads cannot
be
left to
look
after themselves, they need constant
care and attention in rough proportion to the use made
of
them.
*4part from any question of major improvements, there is the con-
tinuous
need for keeping the road surface in proper repair, for
cleansing, draining, hedging and ditching, and for maintaining roads
generally in a
fit
condition to perform their functions as an essential
part of the communication system of the country.
The object of this paper is to outline briefly the framework
of
road administration and to indicate the developments of the past
which have led to the present system.
I
am
fully conscious
of
the disadvantages and dangers of compression, and
I
ask those who
now hear and those,
if
any, who later read these words,
to
remember
that
I
do no more than sketch in very broad and general outline,
and that,
of
necessity,
I
have left out many important reservations,
and have not dealt with many matters
of
importance which might
readily
form
the subject of separate papers.
Before coming to the present day system
of
administration, let
me project as
it
were on a screen
a
few quick pictures
of
road
administration in past centuries.
32
But let me sound
a
note of warning.
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