NORTH AUCKLAND ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1917, Page 3

NORTH AUCKLAND ROADS.

-REPORT OF COUNTY ENGINEER BEFORE WATTEMATA COUNCIL. •Mr. G. A. Jackson (county engineer) presented the following report for consideration of the Wuitemata County Council at its meeting to-day:— THOROUGHFARE LOCATIONS. " Having just completed a tour with the Parliamentary party over a consider-. able portion of the roads north of Auckland, I submit my observations and deductions. It was very apparent as we proceeded north which localities had been settled since the time that this country woke up to the fact that the location of roads was of permanent importance, and that they should be located by competent engineers before the land was subdivided for settlement, and which localities had been settled previous to that . awakening. In the north, the same old conditions that we know too well in our own district obtain. Tiers of old abandoned roads when one deviation after another has been made, each one a little tetter than the previous one, until ultimately, the road has got down to some- - -where near where it should have been in =, the first place. In the far north no evidence of this awful waste of public money is to be seen. The road engineers got in before the settlers, and as a <**en- ; eral rule, the roads are well laid "out and so located that every bit of work - that is done on the roads is work done for all time. NEED OF MAIN ROAD. -, "I was greatly impressed with the lack of unity of purpose in the direc- . tion of a main arterial road, but this . must be so with several self-governing ■bodies, each considering local interests only in their methods. There is no main north road; in travelling north one zigzags about from one centre to another sometimes travelling east, and sometimes west, as well as north. ERRATIC MAINTENANCE. "The same condition obtains in the construction and maintenance of the roads. As you leave a port or railway ...station the roads gradually get worse . and worse until a strip of no man's land is reached about midway between two '^ S ' + an n f ° r .-f flrhile there ™' U be no road at all unt,l you st rike the route of the traffic towards the next port when tie, road will gradually improve unt_ thatport is reached, and the ? n the same There is no lack of metal in the Far -St' **? th t roads be to -r -fetter order than they are . ma „ y case, there are streams with any .. amount of good shingle beds in them, " _f ZJ ?? Whe / e P™*** has been taken of these shingle be«£, .the roads are excellent, but there is ample evidence in places of the metalling .having been entrusted to inexperienced persons, and roads have been metalled wita large stones and small stones mixed and badly spread, and the laree stones having worked up to the surface it makes it very bumpy for traffic A great deal of the metalled roads are too -flat, and have the appearance of the metal having been badly spread on the - old uneven road without preparing the surface for the metal. In fact, in one instance, I observed new metal bein* so .. laid. " P AN ART "CTNKNOWN. 'A. "Maintenance of roads seems to be an - art that is' as yet, unknown in the North. Apparently good metal and day roads have been made, and are now being allowed to go all to pieces for | -want of a little attention. It is quite '.a common thing, when running along a . 'really good road, to suddenly find a -deep watercourse with a, muddy bottom ■'.'■• cut clean across the road, due to a culI vert .being blocked, apparently for years. Then there are miles and miles of what lave been good clay roads all going to H pieces through tihe batters having fretted "to such an extent that the water-fables have disappeared. By the use of a grader these roads could be put in really good order for a few shillings per chain, As an instance of how little - 'attention is paid to maintenance, the deck of every bridge stands up above the adjoining road "from three to twelve inches. I did not cross one bridge in five hundred miles of road without ! bumping on and off it. A. A MATTER OF HISTORY. "It is now a matter of history the awful difficulty the party bad in getting from Kaitaia to Herekino. This trouble was all due to lack of maintenance. Fifty yards of metal and an experienced man for a fortnight in the Herekino Gorge would have saved all that inconvenience, which was aU due to a few - springs in the road -which had been allowed to destroy the metal and form logs. PRIMITIVE WOODEN BRIDGES. "There are many large bridges in the North, all built of wood, and some ot them of a very primitive Mesign. These .bridges are the only temporary work to be seen on the roads, and it seems a pity ■ that concrete was not used in many instances when good shingle is obtainable on the spot. I only passed over two concrete bridges outside Waitemata County on the whole tour. I saw two more in course of erection. These wooden bridges will be a heavy burden in the near future, for repairs and renewals. -"" SYSTEM OF ROAD UPKEEP. •It struck mc that the North does not require roads so much as a proper •ystean of maintenance of the roads feat they have. It may 'be that they cannot afford to look after them, being hampered by large tracts of native and other land from which it ie impossible to collect rates, "out from the information I was able to gather, the people of the North seem to be very reluctant to rate themselves. For instance, on one . occasion I pointed out a very glaring xase of neglect of a road to a ratepayer, and asked if the people did not complain to the County Council about such things. He replied, " Certainly not, as the probable result of such a complaint would be a higher rate next year," and for that reason they were careful not to complain. The farmers appear to "be prosperous, but they are averse to paying rates for roads. HINTS FOR WAITEMATA "After travelling the roads in the North, with their long easy winding - grades, one is convinced of the error of steepening grades to r.horten routes and straighten roads. We have far too many steep grades and switchbacks in Waitemata County, and I am sorry to say we are making errors in this direction even now. When we make a new road, or a deviation of an existing road, we allow other considerations to influence its location other than what should be the only consideration of making the road in the best possible place. If the Council would realise this evil, and •grapple with it, the cost of the Pwliamentary tour, fj. far as Waitemata. ia •concerned, would be well repaid. The next object lesson is to make the bast passible use of local materials, and when weal gravel, llp-uyyig ex undstons is

available, use it in preference to bringing more expensive material from a g**o.\ distance, but -where a soft material is used it must be constantly repaired by putting on more as ruts occur. The third lesson is brought home to one by the Northern people's shortcomings, and that is, having once got a road, either clay or metalled, stick to it at all costs and keep it in repair, but do not employ inexperienced men, either by contract or day labour, to supervise ■work. In my opinion there is nothing North worth copying in administration; we do things better down here. We have a far greater proportion of poor land than any of the Northern Counties, and we have practically no metal within the county, while they have an abundant supply; but our roads compare more than favourably -wttth theirs."