DiscussionThe Chairman remarked that in nearly all plans of towns which had been made the planners had included a ring road, because it had been fashionable to do SO, but the Chairman believed that in many smaller towns a ring road would be more trouble than it was worth, because it would take traffic away from what corresponded roughly to a straight line and make it go in a circle. The problem in relation t o London was peculiar to London. He had no doubt that the discussion would clarify their ideas on whether or not a ring road was wanted. The Paper was a highly scientific analysis of the problem, and the fact that practising engineers could deal with a matter of that kind on a scientific tmis was a great testimony to engineers in general and to the Author in particular. Dr W. H. Glanville (Director of Road Research, D.S.I.R.) said that the Paper wasvery comprehensive and gave a great deal of interesting historical information. The Author indicated that most American cities, apart from Washington, had a rectangular street pattern and that ring roads were inapplicable, but Dr Glanville wondered how true that was. He felt from his own experience in America that the Americans were tending to construct, and had in fact constructed, a number of ring roads in different cities and that those which had been constructed had been found to be extremely valuable. The American practice was to provide roads right through the centre of the city and the urban area which could be looked on as radiating roads in one sense, and in some cases t o provide inner ring roads as well. All those were "free" ways, i.e., motorways with intersections a t different levels from the roads which they crossed. It seemed that that was a principle which must be accepted in future for all large-town development if the full advantages offered by motor transport were to be obtained, because the time saved and the convenience of travel were much greater than with intersections at grade. In England there had been almost no experience of that, and SO the public did not realize the great advantages given by intersections which were free from traffic flowing across them. He hoped that the Author's obvious desire t o see a ring road built on such principles would be fulfilled.The Author had indicated some of the obstacles in the way, not the least of which seemed to be that the planners had felt that proposals involving such expenditure would not be acceptable to the Government. That attitude had important repercussions which it was necessary to consider. Moreover, the historical part of the Paper seemed to show that some of the planners had regarded traffic needs as a secondary matter. That was an extraordinary attitude to adopt, and any engineer would feel, with the Author, that such an approach lacked realism.Another extraordinary fact brought out in the Paper was the foresight shown by the builder of the Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton, in his proposal for a covered arcade. It would have been a great blessing if some arcades of that kind had been cons...
M r B r i t t and M r CockcroftAlthough in the N-S direction the ground profile is ideal for a three-level scheme, the length available in the E-W direction is restricted by the railway viaduct to the east and by the future M1 junction to the west. Consequently the maximum gradient had to be used throughout the slip roads, causing difficult profile problems at the round-'about, and the eastern junctions with the North Circular Road are much shorter than would have been desirable.96. Brent Cross like most projects involved collaboration not only with the Architect, who should receive full credit for the pleasing appearance achieved in spite of the restrictions imposed by traffic and structural requirements, and with our Clients the Ministry of Transport, but with many other bodies.97. Middlesex County Council and Hendon Borough Council were concerned from the earliest stage and their suggestions considerably influenced the evolution of the design. Five different statutory bodies were involved in alterations to the complex system of pipes and cables, and their programmes had to be co-ordinated with each other and with the Contractor's programme, The Metropolitan Police, the Borough Council (representing local residents) and London Transport (both the management and the busmen's representatives) had to be satisfied in advance with provisions made for traffic throughout the Contract. The assistance of the police in agreeing to temporary restrictions and providing uniformed men to control traffic, was greatly appreciated.98. We would like to put on record the assistance given by all these bodies and also the County Council who accepted considerable complications in carrying out an adjoining road improvement in order to simplify our work in connecting it with the flyover approach, the Borough Council's lighting department who carried out work on existing street lamps as needed, often at short notice, and the drainage department who gave invaluable assistance in identifying and deciding how to deal with the many old and often unrecorded drains which were encountered. 99.We should also like to repair an unfortunate omission in 9 93. The Resident Engineer was also assisted by Mr H. Tanton. M r F. J. Cave, City Engineer, City of Westminster In 1958 I was with the Borough of Hendon. This project was a major construction in a suburban area and raised the usual sort of problems produced when building near houses and near places where there is a great deal of traffic already. Many complaints had been received by the council about the difficulty of access to buses at this intersection.101. I think a compliment is due to the officers of the Ministry of Transport, to Mr Andrew, who was then the County Surveyor of Middlesex, and to the Consulting Engineers for the consultation procedures developed. These developed from experience with the Watford Way Bypass, the Apex Corner roundabout proposals, the dual carriageway proposals for Hendon Way, the proposals for the extension of the M1 to Fiveways Corner and the further extension of...
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