HIGHWAY AT MERCER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 458, 13 September 1928, Page 11

HIGHWAY AT MERCER

raising road above FLOOD LEVEL

POBUC WORKS ACTIVITIES

Xt present four feet above its norjjja! level at Mercer, the Waikato Ujver is sufficiently higrh to add to the difficulties of workmen i\V>o are riSLsjng the level of the Great South Road. In past years, Mercer's low-lying roadway was awash with only moder"freshes’* in the Waikato- Now the road is at a safer and firmer level and it would take a heavy flood to hold up traffic. Public Works Deartment labourers are still busy resurfacing and altering levels. \n enormous quantity of earth has bee n used for filling in and strengthening work. Substantial hills nearby __one rose 70 feet sheer from the river —has disappeared before the shovel an d blasting powder. Fortunately, no serious floods have held up work this winter, although much of the land in the vicinity is under water. Minor slips on the new -mbankment have been the main trouble. Heavy floods such as those which swamped the countryside in 1907 and 1925 would have meant the additional expenditure of thousands of pounds on the work, which is now well on the way to completion.