TRAFFIC CLASSIFICATION.

Shannon News, 4 June 1926, Page 2

TRAFFIC CLASSIFICATION.

HEAVY LORRIES ON COUNTY

ROADS,

At the present nine county councils throughout the Dominion are faced

with me diliicuity of so classifying the roads as to prohibit very heavy tiai'iic from pats nig over roads intended to be used for lighter vehicles, and the Horowuenua County Council is a case in point. At the annual meeting of that body Cr. Kiilsby said the money on the Estimates would not keep the GladJ stone road in repair. He urged that it he widened as it was too narrow for the. traffic. 1 lie grader should uc put over tie road. The Engineer said another sawmill .was paying £25 per mile'to the maintenance of its read, while the sawmill on the-Gladstone road had declined io contribute. The question of contributions for extraordinary use of the roads came up all over the County and if the Council made provision, in one direction for such roads it would be asked to do so in many places. He did not agree that widening the road would be a remedy. . Cr. Catley maintained that industries should be assisted. It was the Council's duty to keep .roads open. Why should they ask these people to pay on this pan of the road any than ! when they came on to the mam roads? • The Chairman (Mr Monk) said the

County Council should certainly have its roads classified, so that the Council would be in a position to say what weight should be carried over the roads. The engineer had, however, said he had a difficulty in mak ing a classification. The Chairman considered the matter was* one for much concern. As an instance it what was happening he said a mill which had lorries passing his placd so cut up the road that instead of costing about £lO a year for maintenance it was costing hundreds. The road could have been one of the best in the district, and the chairman i said he failed to see why they should sacrifice the rates for the sake of that particular mill's owners. If that industry could not bear the burden of

putting their product on the market why should the ratepayers have to assist them? The industry should bear the brunt of the whole cost, it all amounted to this, if the mill had to pay, the cost was passed, on to the consumer, who bore his share of the maintenance work done-..0n the road. Cr. Kilsby remarked that the roads in the northern end *of the County were in a very bad state, and .he agreed that the men who were helping to break up the roads should be asked to subsidise the cost, either by way of payment or labour. Flaxmills, in particular, were to blame m the case of the Aratangata road.

Cr. Catley: What about the 'resolution which was passed at a recent meeting of the Council, wherein the. responsible parties—it wasn't stated who—should be made to pay for the damage done? I hope that hasn't been lost sight of. The Chairman replied that it was

now a matter of finding out who these people were, and the Clerk would he instructed to take the necessary action. LEVIN-WinOKINO ROAD

Cr. Kilsby considered it was a pity to have to"-spend so much in maintaining the iLevin-Wirotoino bridge road, beiAro commencing on it as -i main higLway. It seemed <a mistake to carry on with the Shannon road when the former carried more traffic. The Chairman said that although, perhaps, they were a little behind th© schedule, they were endavouring to put the, roads under a tar-covering that was most readily available iu order to gat relief from maintenance as quickly as possible. Ihe Shannon route was the quicker to cet rid of. He agreed with Cr. Kilsby that it was preferable, if possible to first do roads for which metal had to be carted a distance of, say, ten miles.