Making Better Roads

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 555, 7 January 1929, Page 10

Making Better Roads

HUGE SUMS BEING SPENT

Activity in Province

AT no stage in the history of New Zealand has there been more activity by the Government and the local bodies in the direction of providing better roads than there is at present. Those people who were the sufferers in the Christmas spell of wet weather, and the thousands who will follow them, have much better things in prospect.

QOMPABED with Christchurch and Wellington, Auckland’s road reputation has been in a slump for many years, but the indications are that the next few years will see a different position. North, south, east, and west, hundreds of thousands of pounds are being spent re-aligning roads, flattening out the \ grades, anif - improving the surfaces, a procedure in which the petrol-tax is going to play a big part as time goes by. The sum which the Public Works Department, acting for the Highways Board, is spending in the Auckland road district this year runs into some £300,000, divided into three more or. less equal partsmaintenance, new work and reconstruction, and improved surfaces. The largest portion of the petroltax is being spent on the improved surfaces schemes, though portion of it is being allocated to works of a capital expenditure nature. Such bigworks as the improvement at Mamaku Bush, and the Bombay deviation are not the result of the petrol-tax, which was not instituted until after these works had been approved and provided for. Of the £300,000 being spent this year some £90,000 is on account of the five-year programme, in which some £400,000 will be spent on the main north and south roads. The £90,000, however, is the amount being spent this year on the programme southwards, the road from Auckland to Helensville being in the No. 1 or North Auckland district, which is providing its quota toward the £400,000. £300,000 is being spent in the No. 2 district, which extends from Auckland to Waihi. the Mamaku, and to the south of Te Awamutu. BEATING THE FLOODS

Several hundred mfen, apart from local-body employees, are engaged on the roads in the No. 2 district. On the Great South Road the two principal works at the moment are directed to raising the pieces of road north of Mercer and between Rangiriri and Ohinewai that are liable to flooding. The metalling of the Bombay deviation remains in abeyance,

pending the reaching of an agreement between the Highways Board and the Franklin County. The Franklin County is also engaged with the possibilities of concreting the road from Papakura to the Bombay deviation. Between Mercer and Ohinewai a considerable number of men are engaged on widening the main road from 16 and 20ft to the standard width of 24ft. Permanent surfacing is being laid in the Huntly township, and the regrading work in the Taupiri Gorge is nearing completion. As much bitumen surfacing as the weather will allow will be laid between Mercer and Hamilton this season. The Public Works Department is experiment!ng to ascertain the' best method of providing a permanent surface on the sand road between Ngaruav'ahia and Hamilton. South of Hamilton to Otorohanga the road is standing up to the traffic and little is being done apart from maintenance. On the main side route, that from Pokeno to Waihi, the flooding trouble | again occurs, and negotiations are going on between the county and the Government with a view to raising the level and avoiding the trouble at the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangi Valleys. Eastward from Msfhgatangi the portion of this road in the Waikato County is being considerably improved and treated with Mangatangi shingle. After that the road is In fairly good order to Paeroa, and a new bridge is being built at Waitakaruru. Maintenance on the PaeroaWaihi road has been taken over by the Public Works, this being the only rough part of the road. COROMANDEL CHANGES , Several proposals are under discussion for improvements on the narrow winding road up the Coromandel Peninsula. Improvements from time to time during the past year or two have bettered the road, but some protection from the sea and changes on the steep Kirita Hill are required. On the other side of the Great South Road there have been exten-

sive alterations on the Hamilton Raglan Road, while work is proceeding in a number of other directions, including the Mamaku and Kaimai Hill. Matamata County has gone in for sealed surfaces to a greater extent ! than other counties, and one of its ! next ventures is expected to be the road from Putaruru to Arapuni. GETTING BEST RESULTS j So far a couple of the counties have found that with a little manipulation 1 they have been able to get better re--1 suits, and more money. Finding that under the riding system one riding would be able to find its money and draw on the Highways Board for subsidy, while another riding could not do so. these counties have declared main county roads, which draw on the general county fund, and every penny of subsidy that can be raised 1 is thus secured. 1 Evidence goes to show that neither the Highways Board, the Public Works Department nor the local bodies are letting anything slip past them, and there is a general co-op-eration. Careful handling of funds and the establishment of reserves to meet possible developments which have been seen and urged on by the Government departments has played no little part in the present era of development, and the declaration of secondary highways, on which subsidies are being paid for maintenance. \ has considerably improved the posi- ; tion. The departments are in a position to say: “Well, if the bidding is an indication you have three honours, and we have the ace and king; so we’ll just proceed to do things.” The result has been that a longsighted policy has enabled the Highways Board to put up its money the moment the local bodies are ready. Not only are the main highways promising to reap the benefit, but many subsidiary roads are under consideration for improvements, such a one being that from Auckland to Howick, which has a chance of seeing a bitnminised surface in the near future.