COUNTY ROADS TO BE CLASSIFIED.

Shannon News, 16 July 1929, Page 2

COUNTY ROADS TO BE CLASSIFIED.

ACTION TAKEN BY HOROWHENUA COUNCIL ON ACCOUNT OF TIMBER TRAFFIC.

AUNGAONE AND OTAKIGORGE' ROADS TREATED AS URGENT.

The deterioration of roads leading out from the hills, where such roads are used for the purposes of bringing timber out, was discussed by the Horowhenua County Council on Saturday) and as a result a resolution was passed to classify all roads in the County. MANGAONE ROAD. Mr W. Baxter, Waik-anae, wrote stating that he could not see his way to accept the Council's proposal that he maintain the roads and bridges on Mangaone Koad from. Monk's Cutting to his (the writer's) sawmill. The road was rather low-lying to the north of the cutting, and the north end of the a-oad ~-vas therefore subject to flooding in heavy rain He was prepared t-J maintain the road exclusive of bridges from the cutting to the mill for £lO per annum, or would maintain the road from opposite Mr Nielsen's residence to his (the writer's) sawmill, exclusive of bridges, at his own expense. In either case he would not take over the full responsibility of the road other than keeping the portion stipulated in repair. He had repaired the bridge opposite Mr Nielsen's property, and considered that the Council should compensate him to the extent of £5 for the work he had carried out there. The Chairman stated that, since the last meeting, one of the bridges had practically collapsed, and it would have to be re-built. It was not the Council's desire to call on Mr Baxter to build that bridge. All they asked for were some small repairs rendered necessary through heavy traffic, such as timber lorries, crossing bridges; the replacement of planks would not be very costly to Mr Baxter, who should not escape any of his liability for the road. The Chairman added that he could speak with feeling on th 3 subject, , as he had to use a portion of the road which was torn about by timber lorries The four or five miles of road should cost from £3O to £4O a year for maintenance, barring slips, but a distance of less than two miles which the Council had to maintain would probably cost £IOO this year, and that ■ was solely owing to the timber lorries; the other traffic only consisted of a cream lorry and one or two settlers' ears. It was only fair that any damag? done to the other bridges should be borne by the sawmill traffic. The Council were doing a fair thing in maintaining half the road from the County boundary to the sawmill, as they were doing and he thought that Mr Baxter should maintain the other half. The alternative was tc declare it a thirdclass road and restrict the loads on it. This had had to be done on other weak roads. He suggested that the matter be referred to himself, to discuss with Mr Baxter.

OTAKI GORGE ROAD. The following clause appeared in the Engineer's report: — "A. new contractor has entered the Otaki Gorge to take timber from the upper mill. He called at my office and informed me that he intended 'to put on a 2-ton motor truck and load it with three tons, of timber. On the,26tn ultimo, in company with Councillor Jensen, I was in the Otaki Gorge district and met one of this contractor's trucks stuck at one of the bluffs, the back wheel of "the lorry having broken through the metal road. The driver of the lorry informed me that tha truck was "a 3-ton carrying capacity and that he had on approximately 2500 superficial feet of timber. ' The timber was grean and I estimate it would weigh approximately 450 super ft. to the ton. If the lorry weighed 3 tons, this would make his total weight approximately 8£ tons. This, in my' opinion, is a much too heavy load for the Otaki Gorge Road at any time, inoiv especially at this time of the year. Seeing that the road is getting this unfair treatment, I would suggest that the contractor be asked to put up a deposit of '£loo tc cover any -special damage which he might do to the road, and that he pay a further sum of £IOO per year towaids the maintenance _of the road. As an alternative, seeing that the Council collects very little in the way of rates from the upper portion of this road, the road between the Taungata Bridge and. the Upper Gorge end be classified in a low class."

"A SERIOUS MATTER."

Cr. Jensen remarked that the timber traffie on the Otaki Gorge and Mangaone Roads was a seriou3 matter. The Chairman: At Reikorangi and Te Horo too. . Cr. Jensen: And Manakau. It is quite impossible to keep that heavy traffic on those roads unless we have Vsome redress from the people who are responsible. One step towards remedying the trouble, said Cr. Jensen, would be to classify the roads. That would have the effect of bringing the responsible people to the Council to make the necessary arrangement. The small fee which was received from heavy traffie did not indemnify the Council for the damage done. The~ Chairman said that the roads running to the hills would carry a fair amount of traffic during the summer, but in winter great damage Avas done to them in a short time. He thoughht that those roads ought to be classified as low as possible. Cr. Jensen moved that steps be taken to classify all roads in the ' County, and that the Otaki Gorge Road and Te Horo-Reikorangi-Mangaone Road be treated as matters of urgency.

Cr. Ryder seconded the motion, and it was carried.

The Engineer jsUggested that the roads mentioned be classified fifth

class, which would provide for a maximum load of 21 tons, including lorry. The suggestion made by the Engineer was added to the motion