County Roads

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 June 1917, Page 2

County Roads

f— TX HOROWHEX'UA AND

ELSEWHERE

A most interesting and informative' report was submitted to Horowlrenua County Council on 'Saturday last by Councillor Monk, chairman of the council. . Following is the full text of the report:— .Report of Councillors Monlt and iStephenson and Mr J. Malcolm .(County ■ Engineei - ) on their visit to the 'Eltham County on the 30th May, 1917, for the purpose of inspecting a road roller, the class of roads in the and to ascertain the methods of construction. cost of same, untilifcy and durability.

Dealing witili the roads, it would be as well to start with" the county yards where the material (the metal, --and and tar) are prepared and stored, preparatory to carting out to tho scene of road construction. Under the guidance of the county engineer (Mr Tosswill) we were shown over' tho yards. Here an up-to-date crushing and screening < plant'is installed, tlio metal being obtained from the bed of stream close by. The stone is'of'art inferior quality as compared 'With the class of stone obtained from rivers in this county—it is very light, lopengrnined, almost of a volcanic nature and is easily ground into powder by heavy traffic, Much of this metal was costing the county 15s per yard to lay on the roads. It ibecame urgently necessaar.y to do something that would give the metal a longer life on the road ; hence the decision of tho Elthnm Council to try the tar macadam, and tar-sealed road making. One length of the road of some twelve miles, on which there was a considerable amount of heavy traffic was costing £250 per mile per annum to maintain, ,but since this was laid down about two years ago, not one penny had been spent on its maintenance,, but it now requires a new ' surface which will be explained later. Besides the crushing plant (which, by the way, ie driven and has been for the past twelve months by, the road roller they have for sale) a huge plant for preparing the tar or restar is installed. A large reinforced concrete reservoir,, is built to hold up to 48,000 gallons of tar. It is drawn off from here into 400-gallori square iron tanks find hoisted over a furnace where it Is prepared for carting out ion !to the roads. The tar is carted out, three 400 gallon tanks at a time or a Daimler motor lorry, and is sprayed on to the roads by a means of a high pressure drawn sprayer. In passing, it might be mentioned that all the metal and sand are carted by the motor •lorry and council are so pleased with the vehicle that they proposo in. .the near future to obtain two more" of those lorries, this being aij the work is getting away from'- ( centre, hence having further' to cart the material. The, construction 6f the road is, as near as possible, aa follows I The start on a metalled road similar to the roads "in our county, is to lay twelve yards of fairly coarse metal to the chain,, about' twelve feet wide, the surface being previously scarified and rolled if very uneven. The new metal is then well rolled and 1 sprayed with tar and then blinded with chips screened from the crushing plant and again rolled. After this comes another spraying of tar, or restar aa it should be called, and then sprinkledwith sand, and you have as near as possible a perfect road-J&what is called a tar-sealed road. The cost of con-

Eftruction is of course high, 'but to a large extent depends Upon the distance you have to carry your material. The ! average Co6t to. the Eltham county ..was about £800 to £.1000 per mile. The durability of the, road will depend largely on the class of traffic that use them.. The Elthairi council has found that it is. desirable as near as possible to get rid of all heavy traffic using metal tyres.,. This was done per medium of toll-gates (of which they possess quite a numlber) by placing a. very heavy .toll on this class of traffic. Here is an instance—a steam - tractor drawing trailers was using one placed on it. , They did not stop to of the main roads; a toll pf £6 was pay the toll but moved on to 'a place where toll gates, do not exist. Practically the whole of the heavy traffic is by motor lorry. We had the pleasure, under tho.guidance of the count'engineer, Mr -Tosswill, and on

road the county chairman, Mr Bel of inspecting .about 25 miles of lit*; tar-sca.led road®; on cue of them vre saw the tar sprayer at wrk puttini> what is called a skin on the rraL This rood had been laid 'about two* years, and; since then has had no attention at all. 'It was now receiving a new surface or skin —that is, sprayed wit l, tar and sprinkled, with sand. 'From what we could; gather it would 'be necessary to do this at least in .19 or 24 months, at a,cost of 15s per chain on a. 12-foot road. The Eltham county have now about 45 miles of tar-sefiled roads. To do. a considerable .amount of this work two loans, one of £30,000 and another of £20,000 . were raised. Their plant, which is extensive and valuable, was no doubt installed out of loan money. The work ie now being extended out of revenue. Rates are fairly heavy!, the generol rate averaging lid. The two ridings, Mangatoki and Kaponga, which raised the £30,000 and the £20,000 loans respectively are : considerably assisted in their revenue by two toll-gates, wliidli in the year -ending March,,,1916, returned tolls to the extent of £2200 and during the past year have increased the return by £300. The ratepayers find the toll gates <a good proposition, though they, have to pay a toll themselves; they catch the traffic that does , not pay; any local rates. The collecting of the £2500, per year means a corresponding decrease .• in their rates. Owing to the cost of obtaining the (plant required, (before proceeding with this class of road making we consider it would be absolutely necessary to do the work, or at least a considerable portion of it by way of loan, but once the work is done we are of the opinion that the cost of the loan by way of special rate, or at least a major portion of it) would bo met by a corresponding decrease in the general rate, for the cost of maintenance would be very much less than ■bjt the methods we are using to-day, and we would most certainly, have roads that would 'be a credit to the county. ' .In .conclusion we desire to express our sincere thanks to Mr Belcher (county chairman), Mr Tosswill (county engineer), and Mr Tristram (county clerk), who did everything in their power to assist us in our search for knowledge re road'-mniking, and make our trip pleasant and ilro.fi table.