PLAINS COUNTY ROADS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4944, 26 February 1926, Page 2

PLAINS COUNTY ROADS.

IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND.

PROGRESS BEING MADE. Although the County of Hauraki Plains has not now the good name it once had for its smooth roads this reproach will shortly be removed, as a big - quantity of red metal is expected to arrive in the immediate future at various- points for the" long overdue maintenance. . . .

Good progress is being made with the various construction works in hand. On Wilson’s Road the sanding is practically completed, and a start has been made with the metalling. ’ A generous offer has been made by the Paeroa Borough Council in relation to the wharfage charges on blinding metal landed-over the Paeroa wharf. Supplies of metal are being collected at several points on the river-bank at Netherton for maintenance, the riding scheme, and the Pekapeka Road metalling. At the Wharepoa ferry a big dump of sand is being accumulated for the Turua-Netherton bitumen road, work on which will commence within a day or two, when the Huirau .Road bitumen scaling work is completed. The New Zealand Roads Co.’s contract for the bitumen-sealing of the Piako road is progressing rapidly, and now about one and a quarter miles of metal remain to be laid and about one and three-quarter miles of road to be sealed.

The metalling of Kaihere Road by the Lands Department is’ practically completed and the plant* is being removed to Waitakaruru for the-'Mau-koro Canal Road Job. Rapid progress ip being made with the grading up of the clay roads in the Patetonga riding, and the plant is now working towards Waitakaruru.

The road to Auckland is in good order with the exception of the first, few miles from the end of the •shells beyond Waitakaruru The Public Works Dpartment has. the work •of improving the road up to main highway standard in hand, and a's) yet the surface is very rough. ’ A start, has been made with the metalling, and it is reported that ten motor trucks will shortly be employed. A quarry has been opened up just beyond the county boundary. . The rest of (he road through to Pokeno has a smooth surface, though in parts there is, new metal and new cuttings. Though the metal on the Waitakaruru-Miranda ■road has recently been graded up and is badly in- need of knapping and blinding, , the rest of the road is in excellent order, so the route is to be preferred to tl(e Maramarua road.