ROADS UPKEEP

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9852, 3 November 1924, Page 2

ROADS UPKEEP

PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO LOCAL BODIES.

SUGGESTIONS BY MB. C. E ARMSTRONG.

The, necessity for local bodies after constructing good lgghways. to t oct more attention than in the 1* • to maintenance, was stressed ny C. E. Armstrong, ex-Distnet Engineer, in thanking the local bodies ol the district for their presentation to him in the Cook County chain icis on Friday. Mr Armstrong said that every can. was taken- to see that the highway, were properly located, that t - grades, alignment and drainage was good, hut' these were not all the points or reading work. he so ject of maintenance was not g-yen sufficient consideration. Now that roads were being constructed on scientific principles the quest.on o maintenance became more importan than ever and in this connection nc suggested, that a competent overseer should he appointed to instruct the surfacemen in the host methods ox maintenance werk. AY hen a load was sealed with bitumen great care should he taken not to allow the surface to fall into disrepa.r and he impressed on the gathering the necessity for locating and executing the weak spots and filling them with the same material as the road was foimed. He was confident that a great deal of money was wasted each yoai through incompetent surfacemen .it was not the fan t. of those men ; they merely d;d not have tne knowledge of the best methods of maintenance. The men's time had been used iri the wrong direct on. Personally, continued Mr Armstrong, lie' had always endeavoured to impress on the surfacemen the necessity of filling upi holes with rock, arid with bitumised roads this became imperative. He recommended that n. small plant should' be procured for the purpose, or.e that was easily and quickly transported about the district, for the purpose oi maintenance, while the larger p ant could bo used for permanent work. What better alignment could they have than the Borough roads. The roads were wide and provided easy access, yet because the surface was bad they were told that Gisborne had rotten reads. AH other items in road construction might he perfect, but if the surface was had the town was blamed for had reads. And so with the country. A good road induced people from other towns to travel to Gisborne, made friends and did business here and consequently caused others to (•(line. The more .people that visited the d : strict the greater its prosperity. He was satisfied that Gisborne would become one of the best towns of the Dominion. All that it wanted was improved highways and lie was confident those improvements were coming. It had been mentioned that the road over W’hnrerata was a specimen of what shou d lie done in constructing roads. For that, lie desired to thank the Hon. J. G. Coates, who, when the work was proposed 2’ years ago. had given the speaker a free hand and urged to put through the work in 2 years. Faced with great difficulties in regard to the transport of metal and unprepit’ous weather conditions, lie 'bad told the Minister he did not think it could be .done in that time, but the Minister had dissented and asked him to proceed. However, with the {assistance of Air Horne, he started the work. On -that road there were 14 lorries and 24 drays working and metal was laid at the rate of 9yr> cube yards, or nearly 300 tors da.:! v.

Now that the Highways Beard was in operation lie hoped to see the same and oven faster progress, made on the Coast road, as they did not hare the same altitude to which to transport metal. The stone was available from Whnngn.rn, and, under the guidance of Air Albertson, there should lie 10 miles of meta 1 ng done on the Coast road tins season. The money was available, he understood. and it behoved the heal bodies to take advantage or it. . When he .first c-amc to Gisborne, continued Air A rmstrong, the Public Works staff consisted of the chief, Hie overseer and h ms?if. On the date of his retirement there were 5° officers apd >5 or (1 others under lus control, which was a fairly good indication of the district’s progress. In those early years the expenditure m tic's district was a little over £lO,000 per annum, but in the last two years the public Works Department here bad controlled expenditure of £140,000 annually, which indicated allncatkm of Government money.

Speaking of railway construction, Air Armstrong said that when he arrived here the railway formation was half-way to Ormond and the rails wore laid to Alakaraka. There were misgivings at that time—-as appeared to exist now in regard to the Ngn{apa route —as to which, course the lino to Alotuhora should follow. The route proposed was that the line should go up the hack road, but, after making a survey, ho recommended the Otoko gorge route, and, a!-, though there were misgwings that the line could not be constructed on that route, the lin«. hau been built and had given satisfaction.