SEALING PROGRAMME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1939, Page 7

SEALING PROGRAMME

4 PROPOSALS BY MASTERTON COUNTY OPINION ON FINANCE DIFFER. PAST EXPENDITURE TOTALS £78.388. A protracted and at times spirited discussion on the future surfacing programme of main highways, within the county took place at yesterday's meeting of the Masterton County Council. The major bone of contention was a motion passed last year when the council decided that its proportion of the cost of all approved major deviations, exceeding in cost and including subsidy a total of £lOOO, be made a charge against the £2.500 set aside annually for tar sealing purposes. Discussion centred round a special report prepared by the Clerk, Mr J. C. D. Mackley, and Mr H. Sladden. Consulting Engineer. Included in the report were the details of a proposed programme to be carried out during the next four or five years. Apart from Adopting that programme, the council made little definite progress and the matter will again be raised, as the result of- a notice of motion given by the chairman, Mr R. E. Gordon Lee, at the next meeting. '

The report showed that up to March 31, 1939, expenditure incurred in constructing major deviations and permanently surfacing main highways within the county totalled £78,388 and was made up as follows:- —Subsidy, £57,508; cost to council, £20,880. The individual ridings contributed as 10110 lo ws: Opaki, £5441; Rangitumau, £3453; Upper Taueru, £1854; Te Whiti, £4360; Uriti, £2761; Wainuioru, £2408. “In the year 1925," stated the report, “the council decided to permanently surface the Waingawa section, some 60 chains, of the No. 15 Wellington-Napier Main Highway, but prior to undertaking the work, resolved that it be declared a-main road within the meaning of Section' 131 sub-section (c) of The Counties’ Act, 1920, this enabling the council to provide its proportion of the cost out of General Account. A commencement was made in the year 1927, with the sealing of the No. 63 Master-ton-Weber Main Highway, from the borough boundary at Lansdowne, and by March 31, 1930, the council had extended its work on to the No. 64 Mas-certon-Castlepoint Main Highway, terminating at the Goodlands Bridge the council’s proportion of the cost being charged direct to the ridings concerned, namely, Opaki, Rangitumau and Te Whiti.

“In 1930, it was decided to launch a more progressive and comprehensive programme of sealing work on Main Highways. Prior to launching the scheme on a large scale, the council gave consideration to the policy to be adopted in financing the undertaking, and finally decided to provide its proportion of the cost from revenue, limiting the amount to be provided from this source in any one year to £2,500. With a view to stabilising or predetermining the cost of the actual sealing programme as between the several ridings, this sum was made a charge on the General Account in terms of Section 33 (3) of the Finance Act, 1924. I| was made clear, at that time, that any widening or other work required to be carried out in readiness for sealing was to be charged to the Riding Account in which the work was situated, and that only foundation metal and the seal coats were to be charged against the amount appropriated from the General Account. “In 1938, the council resolved that its proportion of the cost of all approved major deviations, exceeding in cost and including subsidy, a total of £l,OOO, be made a charge against the £.2;500 set aside annually for tar sealing purposes. It is interesting to note from the expenditure statement, that three ridings, namely, Upper Taueru, Uriti and Wainuioru, while contributing to the tar sealing programme for the past nine years, had not at March 31, 1939, any portion of the Main Highways within their respective boundaries, permanently surfaced. “In recent years, with a view to making roads safer to traffic, the Main Highways Board has insisted on a much higher standard of reconstruction, and it may be claimed, in regard to road surfacing, as a result of research and experimental work,- a type of reconstruction and sealing has now been developed, which has considerable merit over the older type. New standard specifications covering formation, superelevation at curves, realignment, preparation of sub-grade, construction of metal crusts, etc., have been laid down, and the new method has not only materially affected the application of the work in preparing a road for sealing, but has- also made it impracticable to keep particular costs in making what today is termed “a smooth-riding stabilised surface" prior to the application of the bituminous material.

“After discussing the mader of the council’s future sealing programme with representatives of the Main Highways Board, following upon their inspection of the several Main Highways within thb county, the work recommended over a period of the next four or five years is as follows:—(1) No. 64 Masterton-Castlepoint Main Highway, Bennett’s Hill to Blairlogie; (2) No. 65 Masterton-Stronvar Main Highway, Lee’s Road to Westmere Highway Junction; (3) No. 441 Te Ore Ore-Bideford Main Highway, Wangaehu turnoff to Hillend. “Experience has shown that there is usually a carryover of a certain portion of the work from one financial year to another, and it is quite possible that the programme outlined above, will not be finally completed until the fifth year. The tendency today, where traffic intensity does not exceed 250 vehicles per day, is to use a cheaper method of surface treatment, for example. the use of bitural and a small chip, in place of prime coat road oil and large chip. This type of work costs approximately one half of the road oil method in use on highways, and this method of dustless surfacing is recommended in respect to the above programme. “It will be interesting to note that with the completion .of the above programme, the following lengths of Main Highways will have been permanently surfaced within the several ridings:— Opaki Riding, 14m. OOchs.; Rangitumau Riding, 12m. 50chs.; Upper Taueru Riding, 60chs.; Te Whiti Riding. 17m. 11 chs.; Uriti Riding, 9m. 52chs.; Wainuioru Riding, 4m. 60chs.”