GREAT SOUTH ROAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 8

GREAT SOUTH ROAD

PERMANENT SURFACING NEGOTIATORS UNDER WAY There are indication* that the Great South Road from Auckland to Hamilton will shortly become the subject of negotiation between the Highways Board and the local bodies concerned, with a view to permanent improvements. In spite of expensive maintenance methods and continual grading throughout the past year the road haa not stood up to the traffic, and gives no promise of doing so. Graders were continually In operation during the past six months. Every portion of the road had a grader over it once a week, and some portions three times a week. The long: spell of dry weather saw the loss of a great deal of the small metal, and the subsequent rains again had a very bad effect. The experts admit that the road was never constructed to meet the demands of the traffic of to-day, and that no method of maintenance will enable it to do so. As has been indicated in THE SUN, the Highways Board has an extensive scheme of reconstruction before it, and it is in this connection that the large sums obtained from the petrol tax have an effect. The new scheme has been the subject of private discussions and is likely to be made public shortly. In view of the admitted inability of the road to stand the traffic the probability is that the scheme suggested will embrace some sort of permanent surfacing, involving extensive reconstruction, fresh alignments, and a number of badly-needed new bridges. The most interesting and probably the most difficult of the problems facing the originators of the scheme will be the attitude of the local bodies, but a. spirit of co-operation in this direction should shortly prove of benefit to all concerned.