BAD ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1992, 19 June 1919, Page 2

BAD ROADS.

DESPITE the maintenance work carried on by the Manawatu and Kairanga County Councils on the Pox I on-Palmers! on arterial road, it appears impossible to keep the road in good order. After each shower of rain water settles in slight depressions, and pot holes result. The miniature craters are innumerable, and it is impossible for traffic to dodge them. Traffic widens and deepens the ruts. The present method of sprinkling metal is quite inadequate, and the cost of maintenance is growing enormously. The only way to get over the difficulty, and wc believe (he most economical in the long run, will be to tar-

seal Iho road. The Kairanga County lias so treated a portion of the road a few miles this side of Palmerston, with splendid results. When the initial cost of the modern method is compared with the ever-increasing cost of maintenance, we believe the tarsealing method will be found to be (he most economical. It is problematical whether the Government will ever take over the arterial roads. Even so, who is to say that local bodies will be any bet-lex* off under a dual system of control. We should like to see the County engineer bring down an estimate of the cost of tarsealed arterial roads within the county, and the approximate cost of upkeep, with the present cost of maintenance. Owing to the evolution in road locomotion, the question of improved reading will have to be faced sooner or later.