BOROUGH WORKS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9123, 24 June 1908, Page 6

BOROUGH WORKS.

ACTING-ENGINEER'S REPORT. The Acting-Borough Engineer sublilted the following report to the ist meeting of the Borough Counil's Works Committee: —I have been sked by the Committee to report pon the amount of metal required o repair Pine street and Lincoln oad. The figures respectively are: —Chain3 62, and 63.25 cubic yards, 1,763 and 1,771. The cost per chain f ordinary metal ,be employed will >e £3.75; if broken metal be employed £9.25; if broken metal be 3in;«loyed carted from Fernridge on Donald's tender £10.25 (say); if broken metal be employed and consolidated with the steam roller £13.00. The sum set apart in Loan Schedule A for the metalling of Lincoln road is £IBO, and with the figures before them the Committee will be able to sea for themselves how far this sum will go. Dealing with Lincoln road: —So far as I have been able to ascertain from trial openings the road coating is thin to attenuation, and lam satisfied that nothing less than six inches of metal (applied in one or two coatings as you will) should be applied to the whole of the surface if it is desired to put an end to the seas of mud with which the road i 3 now covered and similarly to the clouds of dust which prevail in the summer, both of which conditions are due to faulty methods of metalling which in the past have apparently been followed. lam satisfied from practical experience, that it is more economical for the Council to effect iU ordinary roijd repairs with bioken metal consolidatid with the roller and more paiticularly will such an observation be found to apply where as in this case what is proposed to be done is expenditure out of loan moneys and of the nature of permanent work which will be expected to have a maximum of life. Lincoln road is, as the Council are aware, now the principal road for heavy traffic between the town and the railway, and that probably is one of the rpasons why it has become so rapidly disintegrated. That being the case whatever is done should be done in as substantial a manner as possible, having due regard to the funds at your disposal. The bulk of the wear now comes upon the centre of the road owing to the irregular manner of its formation. In several places the haunches of the road require regulation, and the sides strengthening, and if that be done the traffic would distribute itself more evenly over the whole surface, and so produce an equalisation of the wear. To regulate and coat the road with six inche* of broken metal is, I recognise, quite outside the bounds of consideration, having regard to the money at your disposal and to the length of the road, but whatever is decided upon I earnestly the Council to effect it in the most workmanlike and efficient manner possible I advise that the £IBO be spent, first, by regulating the haunches and strengthening the sides and then ! applying three inches or so of broken rnetal consolidated with the roller, but that advice is subject to that such work he suspended until dry weather

obtains. I:, the meantime I recommend that the road be well swept with the horse broom, and that all holes then disclosed in which water can pond, be filled in with broken metal and kept regulated. This advice will probably be received with some scepticism in view of what, has been the practice in the past, but it is advice arising out of years of practical experience. If your rol'.er weighed six tons instead of the 15 tons or so which it does, then in that case I might advise otherwise. I put the cost of this work at £13.00 per chain, and with the sum at your disposal you will be able to repair 13.84 chains. I may here point out that we ourselves carted some portion of the broken stom> at Fernridge into Chapel street, hauled with a traction engine at an outside cost to us of 2s 6d per cubic yard, which with the cost of crushing put at 3s totalled the cost to 5s 6d per cubic yard, which sum did not include cartage to crusher as is the case now. In the face of these figures if you now elect to accept Donald's tender the metal so delivered will cost you 6s 9d per cubic yard, and seeing that we ourselves can from the depot crush and deliver in identically the same spots similar stone at 6s per cubic yard you will be paying 9:1 per cubic yard as the price of removing the stone from Fernridge at the present time. Of course the fault lies in the high price of the tender, and if that high price cannot be reduced then my advice is to let' the stone remain where it is until it is possible to obtain a price for its cartage within reasonable limits. The provision made in the Loan Schedule for the repair of Pine street is £l4B, and the observations I have made on Lincoln road similarly apply. On the motion of Councilor Ewington, seconded by Cr Elliott, it was resolved that a copy of the report be supplied to each member of the Council, supplemented by the chainagc of the roads in question, and that the report be considered at next Works Committee meeting.