Catalogue description Road Board, Correspondence and Papers

The Road Board was constituted in May 1910 under the provisions of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909 which empowered the Board to construct new roads and to make grants from the Road Improvement Fund to local authorities for road-laying and the improvement of existing roads.

The most pressing problem, with the growing importance of the motor car, was road surfacing, and the Board concentrated on strengthening the road crusts and the alleviation of mud and dust nuisance by tarring.

With the outbreak of the First World War, expenditure on normal construction and maintenance was curtailed, but the Board arranged the laying of numerous roads for military and other essential purposes. This work was undertaken on behalf of the other interested Departments, and about £4½ million was repaid to the Road Improvement Fund by the Admiralty, Air Ministry, Ministry of Munitions, Board of Trade and War Office on account of the work done.

After the War, the Board was responsible for the preparation of the scheme whereby road works to the value of £40 million were undertaken by ex-servicemen and others who would otherwise have been unemployed. In 1919 the functions of the Board were absorbed into the newly-formed Ministry of Transport.