STREET WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1918, Page 6

STREET WORKS.

REPORT OF BOROUGH ENGINEER. At the mec-ilni' of the New Plymouth Uiiriisigii Council on Monday evenin", ihe borough engineer submitted lor tut) u:it.':-!!iaiioii oi tiie council a summary showing the work undertaken, finished, or nearly completed from April 1 to October 14. In the course of his report, -Mr. Cook said the average number of men, inclusive of drivers of teams and lorry, roller, and at crusher, during the period was 22, and at certain seasons of the. year it is difficult to retain even this number, and still more difficult to obtain others; as a matter of fact, few new hands are coming j nro the district, chiefly owing to lack of suitable house accommodation. In consequence it is increasingly difficult to till the requirements of employers such as the Freezing Company, .contractors, private persons, and ourselves. The average age of the men in the employment, of the council is nearly 30 per cent, higher than IS months ago, and probably 45 per cent, higher than in 1014-13, a 'factor which counts materially when continuous effort is required, on top of the severest win. tcr seasons I have yet experienced. For seme months hardly a full month's dry weather has been met with, greatly impeding wprk of all descriptions, especially when earthwork was undertaken; yet, in spite of this, I venture to think it will be seen from the schedule of work carried out that a, creditable performance has been made, j Then followed "a long list of loan works, special votes, and genera! works which had been dealt with/and the engineer went on to say:—The following will give some idea of the work entailed in metalling the roads enumerated above: Four miles have been re-metalled 12ft wide, one mile 30ft wide, threequarters of a. mile 30ft wide, a total length of 5% miles; 0420 cubic yards of metal and blinding were used,' out of which 420 cubic yards were used for patching and 6000 for permanent work; 250 C cubic yards had beep hauled by our own teams, 1600 cubic yards by cJur lorry since purchased, and'23l4 yards by hired teams and hired lorry; SI chains kerb and channel have been laid. Considering the small number of men employed on the above work, out of whie>, number I have often been called upon to lend three or four for a week on end to contractors, the progress made with the work is well above the average, nsd compares very favorably with the amount of work done in' this borough for some years past. I find from reports when men were plentiful 2} miles of metalling was the whole amount for 12 months, whereas we have, as shown, done 5% miles in a little over six months.

Proceeding, Mr. Cook enumerated a list of 55 works which had been authorised but not yet done, and said from this you wilt see I have a considerably large programme in front of mc, necessitating a larger number of men than are available. Jt is also to be observed that the foregoing list does not include many really important and large works, such as repairs to Devon Street, completing tarred portions of St. Aubyn, South and Breakwater Roads, also at Honui bridge and west of same, tawing Avenue. Tukapa, and Erankloy Roads,, Cnrrington Road from Courtenay to Fendarvcs Street, St. Aubyn to railway station, Brougham Street. lie submitted proposals regarding the order in which work should be carried out, recommending that they be divided into four classes-—(1) tarring. (2) metalline (3) concrete. (4) earthwork and general small jobs. Tn tarring work and going on the. old adage that a stitch in time saves nine, it is wise to save the roads already tarred, and first in importance is Devon Street, or what is generally called the tram route. A separate report upon this street will he laid before you. Gill, St. Aubyn, parts of Brougham and Currie Streets, must also be repaired as soon as possible to prevent further damage being done. Courtenay, Dawson, part of Carrington and Avenue and Eliot isill should be considered of first importance; the saving oi metal is so vital that it is difficult to say which roads are most important. Tukapa and T'rankley are of importance owing to tlie heavy cost of re-metalling when broken through. Under metalling, all roads now open to traffic are important, but Vivian Street should take precedence; Queen Street will also be urgent, as it is to be tarred. Concrete work is chicflv kerb and channelling, and is being worked out in blocks to avoid the continual shifting of plant and material, thus keeping costs down. Earthwork, etc.: The re-formation of Cntfield Road is the heaviest work, and I cannot promise to put this in hand for some time for want of labor. In making suggestions for carrying on works in priority, no hard-and-fast rule can be adopted. Labor and weather conditions tend to alter programmes. One tiling seems certain, many small works which crop up, as is seen in the schedule given above, must perforce be set aside, attention being riveted to more urgent asd permanent work. In conclusion, following my previous' ly expressed intention 'to 'do so, the patching of roads has been kept down to a minimum, and right through the winter the bulk of the work has been of a permanent nature. That this has paid is certainly shown by the long length of roads metalled. To contimio tho old and costly business of patchwork would give no one satisfaction and seriously disorganise the working of the. staff.