OTOKO HILL ROAD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20097, 17 November 1939, Page 11

OTOKO HILL ROAD

WIDENING OF ROUTE RECONSTRUCTION PLANS START AFTER CHRISTMAS “Tenders are out at present for the alnjost complete reconstruction of the Otoko Hill road, from the top of the hill to a point a mile further down on the Matawai side,” said the district engineer, Mr. O. G. Thornton, to-day. Mr. Thornton added that he did not think that there would he any improvement in the alignment of the road for the Christmas traffic, but that those using the Gisborne-Opotiki, via Waioeka, State highway next year would have the benefit of the new work.

Owing to the nature of the present hill road and the extent of the new formation, which would include the general widening of the highway, large cuttings and fillings, some difficulty might be experienced by the contractor in keeping open the route. It might be necessary to carry on the work and close the road at night. If that was done the shortest deviation would be by the Whakarau road, which connected with the State highway again at Motuhora. It would ■be possible to use the Rere road as a deviation during the summer months.

The country on the Otoko Hill section of the route north was unstable and difficult to work on account of the papa foundation on the bluffs. Mr. Thornton said that there was not much solid country in that vicinity to form the basis of a good stable road, but the reconstruction plans would allow for a greatly improved highway compared with the one that was in use at present. Improvements Beyond Ormond

Speaking generally about improvements to the highways in Gisborne that would be available to the motoring public before the Christmas season, Mr. Thornton said that the main work would be the sealing of four and a-quarter miles of road beyond Ormond. That would include Scott’s deviation and would take the sealing out 154 miles north of Gisborne. The Kaitaratahi Hill road would not be included in the present programme, as the sealing of that section would be done later.

Although the method of laying the Ormond length of road was new in the Gisborne district it had been proved to be satisfactory in other centres. The process was a road mix in which a bottom course of metal with a clay binding was allowed to consolidate, Road traffic assisted in that consolidation process and the surface was kept in trim by constant grading and general trimming up. The bottom course had set satisfactorily at Ormond and the first section had been sealed with a thin coating of tar.

The combination of the metal and clay gave a splendid surface, which, however, would be corrugated soon by the combination of rain and fast traffic. In order to seal the surface and hold together the bottom course the comparatively thin tar coating was spread as fne top course.

The work was in hand in several townships on the East Coast where similar sealing was to be carried out to eliminate the dust nuisance.