NCREASED traffic, specially of heavy vehicles, the use as industrial arteries of roads intended to serve only residential districts, the growing number of handcarts equipped with iron bound wheels and a general increase in the cost of construction materials are a few of the problems at present faced by the Highways Division of the Municipal Public Works Department in its efforts to keep Settlement roads in a suitable state of repair.
The unusual conditions which have existed in Shanghai since the hostilities. have made it necessary for the Highways Department to work overtime, and extensive repairs on Settlement and extra Settlement roads are being made.
Some of the roads in the Western area are in specially bad condition as it was difücult for some time to make repairs upon them, and after it became possible to carry on the work, an acute shortage of materials served to create a further delay. At the present time, however, although the cost of materials has been greatly increased, the Public Works Department has found it possible to carry out its work, and the situation is being remedied as thoroughly as is possible under the circumstances For purposes: of administration and inspection of highways the Settlement is divided into two areas, The roads west of Vu Ya Ching Road, comprising the Western area, are supervised by an area engineer and a staff engineer, as is the eastern section. which contains all roads east and north of Vu Ya Ching Road. These are constantly undergoing inspection by regular inspectors and Chinese overseers, so that, when a fault is spotted it is immediately reported to the area engineer who investigates and.then makes an estimate of repair costs which is submitted to the Commissioner of Public Works. As soon as the plan is approved by him, the area engineer issues the necessary papers to the staff engineer and actual work is begun.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.