OPEN IN TWO MONTHS

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 74, 24 August 1938, Page 4

OPEN IN TWO MONTHS

OLD ROAD TO NAPIER

INSPECTION BY MINISTER

276 MEN EMPLOYED

A report from Napier states that the Devil’s Elbow route between Wairoa and Napier, which slipped away during to is year’s floods, is expected to be restored within another two months.

A comprehensive survey of the work was made on 'Monday by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, who visited the Tongoio Valley. He found that the road was open to within two miles of the Devil’s* Elbow, where a bulldozer was making great progress in the work of clearing the route.

The Minister stood . watching the work of the bulldozer for some time, and be praised the manner in which the driver operated the machine, supporting the claim that New Zealand drivers of modern read-making mucliinerv were the best in the world.

Thirty chains o? new road are to be laid down, commencing at a point one and a. half miles from Tanguio. This section has been surveyed and in two days the advent of the bull-dozer on the job will see the work of formation begin in earnest.

Figures supplied bv the Minister dealing with the work being carried out both on the Napier-Gisborne and Napier-Tnupo roads indicate that the Public Works Department is sparing no effort to restore the roads to their former status as soon as possible.

A total of 270 men are employed on the Napier-Gisborne route, and on tht> Taupo road there are 104. On the former route, there are three angle dozers, an excavating machine shovel and two other shovels engaged' i:i digging drains and freeing flood waters. Three graders are at work an the road a

and four caterpillar tractors and scrapers are being used in work on tho farms. A further shovel is employed en the Tauno road.