Saluting Road Builders of the Past

History as a discipline tends to focus on humans. But the scope of history in fact is enormous. It has no perimeter. In modern times, science and technology has so transformed societies that the focus in history writing has shifted markedly – from humans to systems and even the qualitative is artificially compressed into structures or models with quaint results.

Despite that, in the case of Malaysian historiography, the influence of science and technology on society has been taken for granted. In the standards texts on Malaysian history, for example, the impact of electricity, radio, cinematography and aviation are hardly discussed.
Yet as late as 1914, with the exception of Penang and Kuala Lumpur, there was no electric light for domestic purposes. People continued to rely on lamps. Naturally there were also no fans. The old-fashioned punkah was still popular. 

Similarly, although there have been limited studies of road construction, the subject has not been given its due importance. It is not generally clear when the construction of modern roads began and its subsequent development.

According to F.G. Coales, State Engineer of Selangor in the late 1930s, the roads were all water-bound macadam, following twisted contours in order to keep to a ruling grade of one in 40, because all road transport was by bullock carts. Motor cars had already arrived but they were owned by a few of the rich as well as government officers. The normal method of traveling was by gharry, bicycle, motor-cycle or horse-back.

There was no concerted move made to build a more durable surface until after World War I when mechanical transport began. By 1919-1920, it had become apparent that the day of the water-bound road was passing and the use of bituminous materials had begun. Modern road construction in this country was made easier by the plentiful supply of good stones up and down the peninsula.

The use of cars and lorries developed rapidly, far more quickly than the engineers responsible for the upkeep of the roads could cope with. This was because no engineer in those days had any experience in the technique of bituminous treating of road surfaces, or of the bituminous materials themselves.
There had to be experiments and it began in the Kinta (Gopeng-Kampar road) in 1919. There were considerable difficulties. None of the technical staff or labour had any idea of the process. Neither did the engineers who, therefore, had to learn first and then teach the overseers.

But there were other difficulties. Coales explained, “Almost before we had learned how to make a surface that would stand up to motor traffic the road itself was out-of-date. Gradient took precedence over alignment and a huge programme of straightening and widening of our main roads had to be undertaken and today, in 1934, is far off from completion.”

Even before the whole process had been completed there was the need for the engineers to take in to account the increasing speed of motor vehicles. The engineers had to come up with a durable but a non-skid surface. Corners had to be scientifically super-elevated and eased to give visibility alignment. Road deviations and improvements were costly and had to be planned with vision for the future “lest the work today becomes obsolete tomorrow”.
“Road engineering,” Coales remarked, “has become a highly scientific and specialised study and I suppose the development in the technique of road construction and maintenance in the past 20 years has been greater than it has been since the historic days of Telford and MacAdam.”
He concluded by explaining the peculiarity of earlier roads. It was important to note that they were laid out for bullock cart traffic; the ruling grade, he stressed, was one to 40.

Engineers of the past were often criticised for building roads with “twists and bends”, but if one had a full understanding of “the problem of animal traction and the importance of gradient” which those engineers were confronted with and which in fact “they solved so remarkably well, often in difficult country under virgin jungle”, one should indeed “pay a very hearty tribute to their skill and perseverance”.
Malaysia today boasts of some of the finest roads in Asia.

The foundation was laid by two or three generations of engineers over a period of almost half a century.