NOT COMPLETE CLOSING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1036, 29 July 1930, Page 10

NOT COMPLETE CLOSING

ESSENTIAL TRAFFIC ONLY ON ALBANY ROAD COUNTY’S BIG EXPERIMENT “We have never intended to close the road entirely—only to through traffic. A way will be kept clear for essential services.” This assurance of the intentions of the Waitemata County Council regarding the closing of a section of the Birkenhead-Albauy main highway for concreting satisfied a deputation for farmers which waited on the engineer, Mr. A. Murray, at Albany this morning. The residents agreed to co-operate in keeping traffic as small as possible.

It was suggested that permission to use the side of the road during concreting would be restricted to six trips daily by the service cars, including the mail delivery, and to the cream contractor’s service, which would be reduced to a minimum. Ar rangements might have to be made if the weather was such that the clay sides would become impassible, to transfer passengers from one car to another across the closed sections. This might even be quicker than ploughing through deep mud. Mr. Murray gave assurances that communications would be maintained at all costs, and that the council would, if necessary, assist in providing cars. Work had begun this morning, although few machines and little sand had come to hand, but the road will be kept open until the actual constructional work begins. The machines will lay about live chains a day if the weather is suitable, and the full mile will thus be completed in less than three weeks. Curing will require a further fortnight. However, only as little of the stretch as possible will be closed at a time. The chief sufferers will be schoolchildren. A bus will run as usual to Northcote for the Higher standards, but the smaller children, who in the past have been taken to the school by a teacher who comes from Northcote every day. will in many cases have to walk distances up to three miles. MILE TEST STRIP “The council could construct the road in two sections, leaving one half open until the other is completed, but we are determined to take no risks,” the engineer told The Sun. A. quarter-mile test strip had been laid some years ago in this way, but the surface had been rather rough. As a result, the Main Highways Board had refused a subsidy for any further roads constructed in this material. After negotiations, the county had persuaded the board to allow a further mile to be laid, but the remaining four miles of this highway will have to be in bitumen. A permanent surface from Birkenhead to Albany will be available by January. “The eyes of every county in New Zealand will be on this experiment,” said Mr. Murray. It would save the country a large amount of money if the new surfacing came up to the standard of strips tested at the University. The system is one of cone.rete penetration on rough metal and, while it is said to give results almost equal in every way to the usual premixed concrete, it costs little more than bitumen. The council is hopeful of making this a success and, if this experiment comes up to expectations, will lay the 11 miles from Henderson to Huapai in the same material.