GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 9

GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

PAPAKURA NOT SATISFIED,

BITUMEN OR CONCRETE?

The local bodies on the Great South highway between Otahuhu and Papakura are still not all of the same opinion concerning the nature of the material with which they will reconstruct the road in tlteir different areas. TV/- highways engineer has conferred with the local bodies' engineers on the method of laying , the foundation for the hot mix bitumen which the Highways Board decided should be the nature of the road south of Otahuhu. At the meeting of the Papakura Board this week it was asked to forward detailed plans and estimates to the Highways Board of the cost of the work preparatory to the laying of the hot mix bitumen. The Highways Board proposed that it should then give an estimate of the cost of the bitumen, and the town board could put a loan proposal before its ratepayers. This course would also be followed by the other local authorities.

At a conference of representatives of the local bodies and the chairman of the Highways Board in January last the Papakura representative reserved his support of a bituminous hot mix construction until a report was submitted by the engineer, Mr. A. J. Walker. This report was submitted this week. Mr. Walker estimated the cost for bitumen paving at £13,000, as compared with £10.000 for concrete, and a lengthy discussion followed as to the merits of each.

Mr. 11. E. Mclntee asked whether the board was getting value for its money in bitumen. There seemed some doubt about it. Personally he thought it utterly impossible for Papakura to bear 'the expenditure involved, and he advocated a systematic maintenance scheme.

Mr. W. Milne eaid that he was convinced that concrete was the best material, and that the traffic on bitumen would tear it up. The Rev. Wood, who was -the 'board representative at the conference, said he favoured a concrete road.

Exception was taken by a member to the fact that the Highways Board had approved of concrete only as far as Otahuhu.

Mr. Wood eventually moved that Mr. Walker's estimate be forwarded to the Highways Board with the exception of clause 4, which dealt with the formation of a carriage-way and footpaths outside the business area. This was agreed to.

Mr. Mclntee moved that the Highways Board be notified that 3in "hotmix" had been changed to 2in, which the Town Board deemed insufficient, and that, as the cost of concrete, as estimated by Mr. Walker, was only £3288 above the estimate for ''hot-mix," the Highways Board should be asked to reconsider its determination to construct the Great South Road in bitumen. The motion was carried. The Depth of Hot Mix. There has been some comment by the focal bodies concerning the depth, of "hot mix." —two inehas , —which the Highways Board has ■set es the standard. Referria-j to the criticisms this morning, Mr. M; HL Wynyard, of Auckland, who represents the motoring interests on the Highways Board, eaid that two inches was the standard set by the American authorities, who had had so much experience of the mixture, on roads carrying a good deal more traffic than the Great South Road. He would point out that in addition to the two inchea o-f bitumiinov-s concrete, a tarsealing coat, probaMy half an inch in thickness, would foe placed between the foundation and the 'Surface coait of bitumen. One Tree Hill's Decision. As illustrating the different opinions held by local ibodie-s on the merit* of concrete and "bitumen, and their respective suitability according to the conditions, it may 'be mentioned that the One Tree Hill Road Board has decided •to lay down its portion of the Greart South Road in bituminous concrete. This decision 'has been come to, even though the board is entitled, being in the Highways Board concrete aroa, to use concrete.