NEW ROAD ALIGNMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 133, 8 March 1940, Page 7

NEW ROAD ALIGNMENT

gisborne-opotiki highway Work on the formation of a ne/w road alignment on the Matawai side of the (3toko Hill section of the Gisborne-Opotiki State Highway, if weather conditions tire satisfactory, should be completed in about six weeks time. Two large 19-ton bulldozers have been operating over a 30-chain portion of the rood toward the top of the hill, but much remains to be done before that section of the route is complete. To eliminate one of the bad S bends in that locality fillings from cuttings are being used to fill two gullies, one 32ft deep, and the other 28ft. The cutting back of banks 50 to 60ft high was another task to be carried out and the largest block cutting would be one of 45ft. The length of the new alignment would be just over a mile, 90 chains. This provided for the substitution of a route with a few easy bends for the present winding mile of road. Every effort was being made to keep the road open to through traffic and motorists were asked to be patient for at the most they would be delayed for only about live minutes. This would give the bulldozers time to drop their loads and move to the approach to the old highway to clean up any accumulation of debris. The task was a difficult- one in some respects because the existing road intersected the new alignment at several points and the nature o: the country did not make n possible to provid3 detours for motor traffic. In the course of the 'work of the mechanised appliances a quan t.ity of clay and earth was often spilled from the blades and piled across the path of traffic. That was what had to be cleared before vehicles could get through. The hold-up would not be long, but Mr R. Piper who was in charge of the contract on behalf of Butler and Carroll Ltd., of Hamilton, said that some motorists were rather impatient, and even refuse to attempt to negotiate the approach to the existing highways unless it was cleared of all the material that had been dropped from the bulldozer's blades. The clay Avas soft, but would not affect the performance of a motor vehicle in fine weather.