WESTERN ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1937, Page 9

WESTERN ROAD

PROGRESS OF WORK BIG HILLSIDE CUTTINGS PREPARATION FOR THE BRIDGE Rapid progress is still being made with the construction .work' on the western Hutt road, and the approach for the bridge to the main road at Silvefstream will soon be ready for the bridge building. The whole length of the road, when completed, will be comparatively straight, and wide enough to carry a large volume Of traffic at good speed. " From Lower Hutt towards .Haywards practically the whole of the work on the road has ■ been completed, and power graders, rollers, ~ and shingle levellers are working the surface into a firm roadway* that, will be able to take a good bitumen surface. From near Hay wards onwards several gangs are working on the faces where the hillside hasvto be A cut back to permit of a wide roadway being constructed, and at the river; bank work is being done on protection work' before the end of the embanknient.is pushed out to the bridge"'iiter -' • '-' Lc •' The nearness of the Hutt Kiver, as well as the desire to make the road as straight as possible, has led to a great deal of work on some of the spurs running into the~J. valley, highl walls"of rock being left in places where the;ends ofrtlie spurs but off... Some of these cuts,are not yet completed, and the greater, part of'the work still to .be done on the road itself is the cutting of the end off;the.»hill at Haywards. The river does > not 'restrict operations at this point, but the railway line passes close to the spur, and the need for a. straight run to and from the bridge approach has. led to a big cut being made. . > CUTTING A HILL AWAY. As the hillside rises abruptly, this cut means the removal of a great deal of spoil. The workmen/engaged on^this part of the road are at present cutting along the face of the hill a considerable distance above theroadway in use and the spoil is being rolled down the face to the lorries that carry it to the dumping ground. Further around the point 'the line of the road has run through rock, and a gang is busy there blasting the. face away so that it can be removed. A compression plant is used to do the drilling, and a fair amount of explosive And » great deal of labour will have to be expended before the road is carried past this point. Half a mile beyond Haywards a shallow cutting has been made through a spur and the road line swing 3 through this to point straight across the river in line with the present road into Silverstream. Actual, road construction is at : a standstill at this point but there h: considerable activity on river protection work. As the embankment that will connect road and bridge has to be pushed out across the shingly flat at the side of the river, care has been taken to protect the road foundation against river erosion. RESTRICTING THE RIVER. The river touches the hill just above the road line, and a bank' is beinf built from the foot of the hill to connect with the embankment. Thi3 work is being done with trucks and a power "navvy," practically no manual labour being required. The power "navvy," which'moves about on caterpillar tracks, was taken down near the edge of the river and a large area of gravel and stone deposit was dug out and hauled to the river bank above. A heavy flood came down the river some time ago and filled fte area in again, and it is being dug «Tit once more at vhe present time. The power "navvy" shovels up a little over half a yard of material in ■ one lift, and loads the motor-lorries carting from it in approximately two minutes. The completion of the road and bridge will take some considerable time, but when the highway is opened for traffic it will provide an interesting drive in addition to being a valuable addition to the Hutt Valley's arterial roadmg. Much of the hillside in the vicinity of Haywards is covered with beautiful native bush and, wherever possible, tree ferns have been left growing on the top of the cutting. Driving towards Wellington the Hutt River provides several fine scenes as it curves about below the road, and from one or two rises there are splendid vistas of hillside and populated flat reaching away-towards the city.