ROAD CLASSIFICATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 9, 28 January 1942, Page 5

ROAD CLASSIFICATION

INCREASED LOADING

TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT'S

DECISION

At this week's meeting of the County Council the clerk reported receiving a letter from the Commissioner of Transport (letter 24th December) advising that in order to meet the road transport needs of the community to some extent, the Hon. Minister of Transport has taken action under his emergency powers to permit of increased loading during January and February, 1942, on all classified roads.

The increase, which has been occasioned by the drastic reductions in petrol allowances, is as follows: —■ Two-axled vehicles % ton per axle Multi-axled vehicles % ton per axle

In practice he continued this amounts to approximately one ton increase in the allowable gross, load in each case. In the case l of twoaxled vehicles the gross weight (and consequently the payload) is limited bjr the axle weight restriction, the gross load in most cases being ditsributed about 20 per cent to the front axle and 80 per cent to the rear axle.

The gross weight of a multi-axlecl vehicle is also limited to the axle load restriction. In this case the ccntral axle carries the greatest load of any of the axles and this is in the vicinity of 50 per cent of the total load. The period during which the additional allowance applies is definitely confined to the two summer months of January and February when the road subgrades may be expected to be comparatively dry and capable of sustaining these heavier loads. In some cases of old timber bridge structures an increased loading may be unsafe, and in most such cases there would already be imposed a gross weight limitation, which of course still applies. The letter was received.