Geografie 1971, 76, 271-277
Transport of Building Materials in North Moravia
North Moravia being the most industrial area in Czechoslovakia supplies 80 % of coal, 84 % of pig-iron, and 77 % of its crude steel production. There are large heavy engineering and chemical works. Apart from this, the area has the most extensive building construction of all other areas in Czechoslovakia, 22 % of the state investments being spent to cover its building costs although its population makes only 12 % of the state total. Such economic level claims an especially thick road transport by motor lorries and trucks. In this sphere traffic has increased by 32 % within the last 5 years, whereas on railways only by 6 %. Greates demands on roads are made by the transport of building materials, which represents approximately 3/4 of all transported load. The author followed more closely the problems of transport of gravel-sands and broken stone since their largest deposits occur at a distance of more than 100 km from Ostrava, the main centre of the area. The distribution and intensity of their transport is depicted in Figs. 1 and 2. The author suggests two possible ways of improvement. Firstly, more differentation of production in local cement works so that they could themselves supply and kind of cement, and secondly, to apply the ash waste of power plants for the production of artifical aggregate of concrete (ageoporit). At least one half of the total consumption could be covered in this way.
