OUR STREETS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1088, 29 March 1911, Page 23

OUR STREETS.

PERMANENT STREET SURFACES. A STEADY POLICY. • The City Engineer (Mr. V\~. 11. Morion) ivould like to see every street in Wellington either wood-blocked or heavily asphalted. So would probably the engineer of every city and town in New Zealand, because that would mean a very near approach to the perfect city, both in point of economy in maintenance and cleanliness. Mucn has been, done in Wellington in street 'improvement during the last decade. One does not have to feel far back in the memory to recall the hitls and dates of Willis Street, and tile fearsome undulations of Lambton Quay— thoso days when cycling in tlio city was a nerve-wracking business, and rain converted the clnei city ways into a wonderful scheme of lakelets, used by careless horses to splash pedestrians on the always adjacent footpaths. Now we are superior—wo have a. jarrah-blocked way extending from tlio Government (Lambton) railway station -to within a couple of hundred yards of Newtown Park, and the fines level surface presented has banished the lakelet industry in wet weather into the limbo of the past. Other good work has been done, so far only of an experimental character, but these experiments are teaching a good lesson. One might say that they are actually paving tho way for the coming of the city perfect. A couple of years ago Brandon Street West was laid down in asphalt—not just an inch or two.,of asphalt, but on six to eight inches of metal, tarred and rolled, was laid another six inches of fine asphalt. This mado a veryfine surface indeed—one which so far lias proved quite impervious to the heaviest rain or . traffic. . So. successful did this prove that the council is now attending to Allen Street (the annroach to the fruit and" produce markets) and Grc-y Street (between Lambton Quay'and tho foot of the Queen's Wharf). The treatment is ">. e -. nearest • approach to a permanent road surface as could bo imagined. It is, of course, very expensive, but when the cost of maintaining ordinary maeadamis- ? over which passes heavy city traffic, the expenditure is surely justified. •the street-tarring operations have only been moderately successful. Though only done three or four moiths ago most of the tar has disappeared from Thorndon Uuay; the- lower part ,of Featherston street, and in other places. In that big open square (which so badly needs beautifying) at the foot of Majoribanks otieet new metal and binding has already been laid over the surface that was tarrecl three months' ago. In Upper Willis ? mi 1 " has to . llunt for traces th o J®?* {J ID experiment has proved , one thing that a single coat of tar is ineffective. On the other baud, where a .double coat-'has been- administered tho result «|) to the present has been quite satisfactory. This can be seen in that section in leatherston Street in front of the new General' Post Ofiicc. There the surface is almost as smooth and. solid .as if the ,tar were. laid, on asphalt instead of on tho naked macadam. Just at Hie present- time tho engineer has his hands ,particularly full of streetimproveme.nt works. In addition to the solidification .of tfrey and Allen Streets a, start has at last b-?on made to widen out that section in Willis Street where the buildings have been set back to the new alignment,-and, now that the blocks 'lave anived, <x start will be made to wood-block Customhouse Quay next month, which work will proceed simultaneously with the extension of tho tramway line down that street. Talking about jarrah-blocks.:.- There was a timo when' the. couiv.il imported its 'jarrali planks, ahd--e.ufcup'its own blocks .at the corporation yard at Clyde .Quay. After several hundreds of thousands had bec'n cut up in this way, it was discovered by some one, quite accidentally, that the sawn blocks could be imported from Western Australia a good deal' cheaper than they could be produced at Clyde Quay, so the system was changed. . The reason was very obvious. At the West Australia mills the stripping* and ends can bo sawn up into blocks, lessening tho proportion of waste considerably, whereas the planks had to. be sent for tho teeth of tho Clyde Quay Vaw to masticate. ■ Mr. .Morton intends to make an experiment in -the use of "Powellised" birch for road-blocking in the about to be laid. When the wood blocks were first laid down, some experimental blocking was done between Stewart. Dawson's corner and the Exchange Buildings, in Australian tallow, wood and black-butt, both of which hare done very well so far.