Piako Roads Bridges, and Drains.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4478, 21 October 1909, Page 4

Piako Roads Bridges, and Drains.

BBRYISOR JOHNSON’S REPORT. the Piako County Ccurcil meeting Tuesday, Mr W. B. Johnson, Superqrjjsnbraitted his monthly report, as Ibws:— ■Jouncil’s Timber Supplies, —I interwed the manager, T. T- T. Company, j '‘secured very good terms from them giving them the sole right to supply arret bridge timbers, under the follow- ' conditions :—The Council to order ect from the mills, preference to be en to Council’s orders, Council to reve 10 per cent off all rates, and local juts to receive per cent for all tim • ■ required by the Council. Crossing at Maori Creek.— Cr Brady 1 myself looked at this place, and deed to let the matter stand over until ire was one of the Council’s pile driv- ■ apparatuses in the vicinity, as piles re £o driven to keep the crossing from ng washed away by the floods. Je Hoad to Gordon School. —This work ft been put in hand yet, and will be ed to when workmen are availitSfekey’s New Boad.- Have taken the ew here, and I find that this road will about £l6O to put through, the st expensive portion being the ereca of a 20ft span bridge over the Tonepi earn concrete foundations, with hardod superstructure. C. Allen’s Bequest for repairs to lmney’s Boad. —As Cr Manuel was ly from home on a visit to Australia, I re.not made the authorised inspection this road yet. lutchison’s Boad.—This road has been ;ged off, but not levelled yet, but this . be undertaken during the coming nth, and contract prepared for the :t Council meeting. tacecourse Boad.—Cr Thomas and self inspected this road, and found t a couple of days’ surfacing work lid suffice to make a fair job. This been attended to. McFarland’s New Boad, Kiwitahi. — on inquiries being made to the Survey jartment, it has now transpired that i road has not yet been gazetted a die road, and will have to stand over ding the sitting of the Native Lands irt. Reynold’s Drain.—This matter has not anced any further yet, owing to my jility to spare the necessary time to rage matters. larroll’s Flat.—Tenders for this work before you to-day. hompson’s Track.—l have only been 3 to get a few days’ work through on track during the month, owing to scarcity of good labonr. iOw Place at Bowen’s Flat, Te Aroha • don Boad.—l have taken the levels 3, and calculated an estimate of the i of making a good job of this place, hink that this work should be aurised, and tenders should be return--3 at the next Council meeting, might’s Boad, Extension to the 00l Boad.—l regret having to report i the amount allocated for this road not be sufficient to do this job and :e a thorough job of same, and I thererecommend that so far as the money go a proper job be made, and some porary work be carried out on the aining portion to tide over the next ter, when the balance of the road Id then be taken in hand and a projob made of it. The cost of the temiry work would not cost more than . However, tenders are before you lay for the full length, and the entire . should be dealt with before they are aed. > faghom’s Bridge.—Tenders are before for this bridge, and I have to state ; it will take all of the loan amount to struct this bridge, owing to the great v that the drain has been taken across road, thus necessitating a longer i bridge than otherwise would have i required. lexandra Boad—Tenders are before to-day for this work—raising up at 40 chains of swamp road —the lunt available here is £75. tanley Boad Washouts—Cr Hughes myself made a visit to these places l a view to arranging for a road being aed for light traffic, and succeeded in raging with Mr B. Montague to open fid road through his property, Monue to do the work at £9, he to mainl such road until the new bridge is it. Be Franklin’s Bridge, plans are ready and tenders are before you lay for the erection of this bridge, homas’ Boad Pipes— rhis work has been taken in hand yet owing to my being able to spare the time to 3rvise the work. Will endeavour to nd to this during the coming month. [cKinley’s Boad —Tenders are before to-day for this work, ravelling Bad Portion of Matamata d—On making further enquiries re of procuring materials, I found that uld not make a satisfactory job with amount authorised at the last meetand I have therefore now to advise , this work stand over until the work ig the Waitoa Railway Station Road» aken in hand. o. 2 Boad Extension Waitoa Estate—ders are before you for this work, i will complete the forming and ling of this road from the Eastport d to No. 7 Road.

Aitken’s Flat—lt was at first in-

led to cut all ti-tree and clean out l-side drain on that portion of this [ from the Waitoa River to tb e foot of ine on the Kereone Estate, but on ection I found that all that could be

ertaken at the present time was the ring of the ti-tree alone, as the drain ied too much water at present to vv a satisfactory job being done, ders are before you to-day for ti-tree ;ing only. tuheilßoad. —Facining work has now completed and this road is now in very order, all that now requires to be done is at on some more covering on facines, as

get dry, to make traffic over same easier, arting contracts that were suspended ag the winter. I notified all contractors fain starting operations on these works, so far the only contractors that have e a start are Stanley Bros. Who have ed on with the Tauhuna Road jobs, and 3 good progress. I will again notify and with the other contractors in accordance

lthe printed conditions governing their :acts. _ , . pairing the main road in the MorrmsRiding. This work has progressed well the last meeting and should be comd in about a fortnight’s time. alton-Kiwatahi Road.—Tenders are bepou to-day for this work, but I regret the line of the old road has been some-

altered by means of a re-survey of the route and there are now thirteen chains e west end that will have to be struck iwing to the line here being clean off the ?r road. There are a number of other 3 that are more or less effected through lame cause. ■ ikoiti Road Grading Contract.—The 3 as laid out in present contract on this ■nd for which tenders are returnable itotvill exceed the amount allocated for exture by about 13s, and so as not to

overlap the allocated amount, this can be cut down after contract is let, in accordance with printed conditions. Poplar Bridge.—Tenders are before you to-day for this work. Repairs to Grader. —I wrote to the various firms requesting them to suhmit to me a price for thoroughly overhauling the road grader and the lowest tender for carrying out the work was Mr D. McL. Wallace’s at £22. The others were as follows : Roberts, £25 2s 6d ; Devey and Son, £2B. I also took the opportunity of getting prices for making two collapsing cores for pipe making apparatus, and Devey and Son was the lowest for doing this work at £l4 10sThe other prices were, Wallace at £l4 12s, and Roberts at £l6 10s. These are similar cores to the one that Roberts of Waihou, made only being a little smaller.—Cr Thomas and myself dealt with these tenders There should be another collapsing core for making these pipes same as what Mr Roberts 1 made, to complete a full set and then we could keep up to the requirements. This should be made for £B. GENERAL.

I advise that a number of other works be pnt in hand and tenders called for at the next meeting. These may be as herewith : Morrinsville Biding, grading further length on the Tauhuna Road amount allocated £170; Pages’ Culvert. Bridge loan, £2OO ; Starkey’s new road, £l6O. No allocation made for this work in laying outthe estimates. Walton Riding.—Further portion of the Walton-Kiwitahi Road. £2OO. Ellery’s road, £BO. Waihou Riding. Waiwhero Bridge at sale yards, £2OO. McCabe’s road bridge, £SO. Waitoa Biding, main road at Waitoa, £BS. Miliken’s frontage, £IOO. No. 4 Road, £250. Manawaru Riding. Baker’s Road, £BO. Waiorongomai-Manga-kawa road at Cochrane’s Flat, £4O, at Tretheway’s £l3l. Te Aroha Riding. Bowen’s Flat, £275. This sum was not allocated when estimates were made up. Bush Road, £6O. These are all the principle works that are not taken in hand yet. Concrete Piles —1 wish Council to grant me authority to make reinforced concrete piles for bridges. These, I am quite satisfied, can be made at very near the same price as timber piles are costing now, and would be a much more substantial job. There is no doubt that reinforced concrete has come to stay, and by advancing with the construction of our brridges and culverts in concrete we are adopting more permanent methods every year.