IMPROVED ROADS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 65, 7 November 1931, Page 4

IMPROVED ROADS

GRADING AND SURFACING ON MAIN TAUPO HIGHWAY. PUARENGA BRIDGE OPEN. A further step in the improvements whieh have been carried out to transform the Taupo Road from one of the most difijcult highways in New Zealand into . a well-graded and exeellently surfaced road, was taken this week, when the new bridge over the Puarenga Stream was thrown open for traffic. Travellers who negotiated this road in the days before its improvement will in many places hardly reeognise the transformation which has been carried out on its twists and turns, Quite apart from anything else, the distance from Rotorua to Rainbow Mountain has been shortened by one mile, and serviee car drivers state that the saving in their time over the whole distance between Rotorua and Taupo is quite 35 minutes as the result of the improvements on the. bends and.difficult grades. The engineers who carried out the work were fortunate in that the road over the first twenty miles of its length runs through Crown or unoccupied native lands. This gave more room for extension and they were not restricted by the considerations necessary when private property has to be acquired for the purpose of altering the. coiirse of the road. Special attention has been given to the dra;,nage of the road and permanent- ooncrete culverts have been placed in readiness for the. bituminous P'aving which will probably be neeessary in the future. The pumice surface at present is in excellent order, and with the help of the lifts on the curves and the improved visibility, motorists can now travel at a speed between 40 and 45 miles per hour in perfect safety. _ A balance of approximately 25 miles of road improvement remains to be eompleted at the Taupp end, but the greater part of this is very easy formation with a few miles of more heavy work. The road to Murupara which branches off just past Rainbow Mountain has also been reconstructed and is now a very fine motor roadThe whole of these road improve-.men-f; - works gave employment to soinething like. 200 relief workers \mder excellent conditions, and with the developmental schemes already commeneed and proposed in the distriet, it is probable that the Taupo Road will in the course of time. become one of the most important highway^ in the North Island.