MANAWATU COUNTY MAIN HIGHWAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3909, 19 February 1929, Page 2

MANAWATU COUNTY MAIN HIGHWAYS.

INTERESTING TOUR OF INSPECTION. MODERN MACHINERY AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN OPERA- , TION. The Manawatu County Council’s (in conjuction with the Highways Board), main highways construction policy is now . operating on scientific lines, and when the highways are completed will be second to none in the Dominion.

For a long time past the Manawatu County Council has been subjected to a good deal of adverse criticism concerning the state of its highways and no end of correspondence has appeared in the papers relative to this subject. Despite this fact, however, the Council has been quietly and doggedly carrying out a highways policy with the result that to-day it is in the position df being one of the leading road making councils in the Dominion, with equipment second to none, while the work is going forward at top speed by picked gangs of men under the supervision of one of the best roading engineers in the Dominion in the person of Mr. H. Y. Bond. Yesterday our representative was privileged to make a tour of inspection of the county with the engineer and to see the various phases of the work being carried out. Road making in all its stages is to be seen in the county and inspection proved very interesting and highly instructive. FOXTON-HIMATANGI HIGHWAY. Starting from Foxton our representative was taken out to the Fox-ton-Himatangi highway where a gang of twenty men, under Mr. J. Conway, are carrying out the foundation work 'for the hot-mix ‘preparation which is being used exclusively by the Manawatu County Council. Already 95 chains of this highway has been prepared, commencing at the Foxton borough boundary and, despite the fact that many sandhills have to he cut away and numerous lowlying places filled in, work is proceeding at a rapid rate. MECHANICAL LABOUR-SAVING DEVICES.

nor on the smith side, while arrangements .will be made to remove the 'fence and trees on the northern side to give an unobstructed view of the corner. The Himatangi-Rangi-otu section is 7£ miles in extent and finishes at the County boundary which is the Rangiotu bridge. The old road will be followed wherever possible but the engineer has provided for straightening out many of the existing bends around Bainesse. Proceeding Palmerstonwards from Sorensen’s corner, there are to be no structural alterations in the roadway until the i-ailway line is crossed, where the two S bends will ho straightened. The highway then keeps to its .present location with-: out alteration except that it will be raised somewhat to conform with the levels sh-uck. The bends oil the Foxton side of the Bainesse school will be straightened and the road will curve gently , to pick up. the existing road by the school. Past the Bainesse station the road will bo carried back from the railway line to the minimum distance, Bft. Gin., necessitating the removal of a good deal of sandhill country. CURVES STRAIGHTENED AND ROAD RAISED. The five chain curves will do away with the dangerous bend just past the. Bainesse factory and a great deal of filling work will be required in front of Mr. H. Bond’s property where, in wet weather, the road resembles a drain more than a road. From there on to the, Rangiotu school the road is also fairly low lying and will require a good deal of raising- as it is at present someukere in the vicinity of two feet below the required level. The road in front of the Rangiotu railway station will he raised to the level of the railway line from the culvert to the bridge where in the past there has always been such a depth of flood water. CAMP FOR, THE WORKMEN. The Miami scoop proceeded to the Rangiotu section yesterday to comiuicnee operations and during the next fortnight a start will be made with the erection of a camp for the men engaged on this section at Bainesse. Provision has been made for the erection of a bunkhouse, cookhouse and dining room to accomimodate thirty men. The bunkhouse will be so constructed to accommodate six men in each compartment. The men to be employed on this highway will be the gang at present working at Awaliuri, who are more or less the Council’s permanent hands. They anticipate completing the Awahuri section within a month when they will immediately transfer to Bainesse. The camp will be located at the rear of the hill behind the Bainesse station. The Bainesse section of the; highway will entail a great deal more work than the Himatangi section owing to the fact that there will be more deviation work and that it will not be possible to tip metal right on to the road from trucks in many places. Approximately 14,000 yards of metal will ha used on this section. AT LONGBURN.

Here are to be seen at work men operating six horse scoops, one Miami tractor-driven scoop, a Lessman loader, lorries, steam roller, etc. Not the least interesting of the mechanical devices employed on Ibis stretch of highway is the Lessman loader. This machine is a miniature steam shovel, with the exception that it is operated hv a Fordson, and is capable of loading drays or lorries at the rate of a yard a minute. The Miami scoop is employed in the preparatory work on the roads and prepares the level hanks. This machine is merely a tractor-hauled scoop capable of doing the very roughest of levelling. Once the levels are taken this tractor gets busy and throws up the banks on either side of the road approximately to the levels set by the engineer and opens up the way for the horse scoops to operate for filling purposes. With the levels set and the highway filled to within seven inches of the proposed height-of the road the Council’s tram delivers metal from the Terrace End pit on to the job at the rate of 140 yards a day. Imlmediately the moral is discharged, two horse scoops spread it and are able to dispose of the. whole quantity of metal within a day with the assistance of men engaged as spreaders. , Two nappers are also engaged in breaking up any large stones, but the engineer pointed out that the percentage of metal over three inches in size was very low from this particular pit. The highway itself is to be eighteen feet wide, but the whole formation is 24 feet wide, which is to be a minimum of Bft. Gin. from the railway line throughout. This gives a shoulder of three feet on cither side of the highway proper, of macadam road. The side opposite to the railway line has been scooped out level for filling purposes and the engineer’s idea is to use this lower portion as A STOCK ROUTE,

At Longburn an engine shed and pit is under construction .by the County to house their 1 locomotive while engaged in haulage work. The shed, which is being constructed of corrugated iron, is located at the end of the stock siding just south of the crossing. THE MT. STEWART SECTION. An inspection of the Terrace End metal pit yvas made prior to proceeding to the Mt. Stewart section of the Council’s highway. At the pit the contractors were engaged in loading the trucks for the next despatch to the Ilimatangi section. THE HOT MIX PLANT.

for which it is) admirably adapted. On the railway side of the road will be a water table and the culverts to take the storm water to the opposite, lowlying side of the road, which were put in some months ago prior to the commencement of the preparation work. At llie time of the inspection the gang was working some distance beyond the Motuiti Station where a very lowlying portion of road had been encountered. A considerable amount of filling is required here and the cutting and roadway is being fascined accordingly. This section of the highway is five miles in extent and ends at Sorensen’s corner. In all 10,000 yards of metal will be used on this stretch of highway, which should be READY FOR TAR-SEALING NEXT SUMMER, Only one tender- was received by the Council for this work when tenders were invited, the figure being in the vicinity of £I6OOO. Mr. Bond’s estimate for the Work was £BSOO and working out the cost of the 95 chains already completed the work has been carried out in accordance with his estimate. HIMATANOI-RANG-IOTU SECTION. At Sorensen’s corner the Council has acquired a piece of land and a three chain curve will replace the existing dangerous right angle cor-

Just over the Awahuri bridge is located one of .the most interesting appliances connected with modern road making. It is the hot mix plant, owned and operated by British Pavements Ltd., under the supervision of Mr. Hempletman, who is also a well-known roading engineer. This plant is the largest hot mix plant in New Zealand and turns out six lorry loads of mix in each batch. It is here that one realises that road making has now become a purely scientific business, the metal, of which there is an unlimited supply in the Oroua river bed where the plant is situated, is tipped into a hopper, screened and sorted. It is elevated into different bins, heated up and mixed with the bitumen which is at an even heat and leaves the mix in the lorries at 266 degrees Fah. and .placed on the road at not less than 250 degrees. There can be no variation 01. this temperature. If the temperature is perceptibly above 260 degrees the mixture becomes burnt and is useless and, likewise, if the mixture arrives at its destination lower than 250 degrees it must also be discarded as of no use. From this it will be seen that the greatc*st care must 4>e exercised in the preparation and transport of the mixtures as if a batch is spoiled the whole spreading gang will be held up for a considerable time besides a serious loss in material is involved.

RESEARCH WORK. The scientific part of the business is not merely contained" in the above, however. Prior to the [mixer arriving on the scene, Mr. Bond carried out a considerable amount of analysis work with the Oroua River product and was thereby able to ascertain the correct range of Oroua River metal to be used in the mixing process. After leaving the hot mix plant no time is lost in conveying the mix to the road under construction, which in this case *was portion of the Sanson-Mt. Stewart section. As one lorry pulls out another backs in and the mix is discharged and spread without delay. APPLYING THE HOT MX. The ro.ad which has previously been swept, has been boarded up to the required 18ft. and a camber board is used by the gang} of spreaders to ascertain the correct camber of the road. As soon as the mix is spread a steam roller goes over it and rolls ‘it in, a device on the roller (keeping a continuous streainr of water flowing over it to prevent the mix adhering to its huge wheels while the shovels, rakes, etc., ar eikept hot in a “devil” while not in use. On Mt. Ste'wart itself a gang is busy carrying out widening work while the surveyors are also located here plotting the correct curves, etc. , The level banks in this locality have been made up of clay from an old pit on the hill on account of it settling down much quicker than any other material. A wonderful improvement has already been effected on Mt. Stewart, the dangerous bend near the summit having been completly done away with and the road straightened by means of filling a gulley and cutting away the side of the hill. Within a month the preparation work on the section of highway between Sanson and the Aivahuri boundary will be completed while three and three quarters of this distance will be tar sealed this summer. Mr. Bond's estimate for the carrying out of the preparation work between Sanson and Mt. Stewart was £4400 and the work was actually completed for £4300. The hot mix work on this section is being carried on at thc-rate of five to six chains a day. After the mix is laid) it is subject to a dressing of bitumenised Rangitikei chips, the whole being “squegeed” over with a top dressing of bitumen. When the road is finished it has a thickness of three inches of preparation on it, which, if dressed periodically, becomes permanent as every stone in the roadway is thoroughly mixed with the bitumen and sets like rock. A careful watch is kept over the laying of the mix by Mr. G. Barber and any cold or burnt patches are soon detected and picked up and replaced and depression noted and filled. A sample of burnt mix which had been picked from the roadway was examined and was found to have set that hard to the prepared surface of the road that it was only with great difficulty that it could be separated. If this applies with a burnt mix then there is absolutely no doubt about a properly prepared mix adhering to the road. THROUGH SANSON. Passing through Sanson the Coun oil's initial steps into the road making business were encountered and the Sanson-Bulls highway is certainly a fine piece of road. The engineer informed our representative that two new concrete and steel girder bridges were to immediately replace the existing old wooden ones between Sanson and the Rangitikei Bridge. This highway, said Mr. Bond, cost the County £4OO per mile per annum to maintain prior to tar sealing. Last year it cost £4O, a strong argument in favour of modern and scientific methods. At the Rangitikei River an inspection was made of the Council’s stone crusher anl the return journey to Foxton -was made down Sandon line. ENGINEERING PROBLEMS. In discussing the Council’s roading scheme, Mr, Bond said that few people realised the tremendous amount of work that was required before a roading scheme could be put in operation. For the past twelve months he had been engaged •in surveying, plotting and preparing plans, taking out estimates and preparing specifications for tenders, etc., besides having to prepare‘B4 plans of the proposed highway work for the Main Highways Board. This all took up a great deal of time and the Council had little to show the general pulblic for it. Now that all the preliminary work was over the scheme would be pushed ahead with all speed, and the next two years would place the Council in a very much better position with regard to its roads. Rain was badly needed to assist the work at the present juncture. An example of I he benefit of rain on road preparation work was to be witnessed at the commencement of work at the Foxton boundary. Sufficient wet weather had been experienced when this portion of the road was laid down with the result that it had set solid vfith a good surface which did not obtain with the prepared road further on which had been done in dry weather. With a little rain and a good rolling the newly prepared road would present a very good surface. The Council is particularly fortunate in being able to serve a considerable portion of its roads with the Sandon tram, continued the engineer. This means a tremendous saving. Metal can be supplied on the Himatangi road at a very cheap rate while the cost of scooping from the line to the road is only 4d per yard. Terrace End metal is used because it possesses an excellent percentage of clay which is a fine blinding material and that is the reason it is being used on the job. The tram brings 13 trucks from Longburn dailv and the ordinary train five, the tram return-

ing all Empties to Longburn. This is a particularly fine arrangement and ensured a constant supply of metal on the job. Referring to the water channels along the Himatangi highway Mr Bond said the Council had provided culverts to the boundary of the road and property owners could greatly assist them in the highway work bv opening up thendrains and keeping them clear to allow storm water to have a ready get away. In conclusion, Mr. Bond said that there would be no delay in the work in any part of the county from no,w on. As soon as Ihe Rangiotu section was completed the Himatangi-’Sanson road would be given attention and the surveyors had already completed their work in this connection.