GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 281, 27 November 1925, Page 8

GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

BITUMEN OR CONCRETE ? GRANT OF £6000 ASKED. DEPUTATION TO PREMIER. No definite answer could be given by the Prime Minister, the Hon. J. G. Coates, to a deputation this morning representing the four local bodies controlling ten miles of the Great South Road between Otahuhu and Papakura. The Rev. W. C. Wood, chairman of Papakura Town Board, said that a bitumen road would cost £78,000 and the Main Highways Board had advised on November 19 that, the work would be subsidised on a fifty-fifty basis. However, there was a very strong feeling locally against bituminous roads and the indications were that a poll for a loan for such a road would be turned down. The local bodies preferred to go to the ratepayers with a concrete proposition. A reputable firm had made an offer to construct tho road for £90,000, continued Mr. Wood. That represented £12,000 difference in the price. If the Government could make a £6000 grant that would keep the proposition on a fif t}- ,- fifty basis and enable the local bodies to go to the ratepayers with a fair prospect of getting the loan through. The decision of the Main Highways Board meant that the local bodies would be subsidised at an average of £7500 per niile on the total cost of £78,000. Mr. Coates: Can't you get the concrete fellow down a bit? Mr. Wood: They are very much below the engineer's estimate. We have reason to believe that they are pretty well down to bedrock. With such a dependable firm it would be something in the nature of a tragedy if we failed to take advantage of the offer. Their price was £1000 less than the estimate. Mr. Coates: The board's standard road is 18ft, and yet you propose putting down 26ft. Mr. Wood said that 18ft would be concrete, with 4ft shoulders of macadamised bitumen on each side. Mr. Coates: You could not have a grant. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Tho board has given fifty-fifty for bitumen, and they feel that they have gone far enough. If the local bodies want concrete, then by all n>"ans let them have it Mr. F. M. Waters, chairman of the Manukau County Council, pointed out that the One Tree Hill loan for bitumen had been turned down. The Premier said it was the experience of road-makers that it was best to build the type of road to meet the traffic, and one lost sight of economics when one went beyond that. Mr. Waters said that the traffic would increase with the better road, by reason of its geographical position. It was like a bottle-neck between the coasts. Mr. L. B. Campbell, Public Works engineer, said that traffic tallies had been taken quite recently. In reply to another statement, Mr. Coates said he thought that they had got all they were entitled to for the road between Pokeno and Auckland— that was, to carry out the spirit of the Act. Mr. Wood said he took it that the position was that there was no possibility of money being found by the Government for a concrete road. Mr. Coates: No. The position is that you are asking another £0000 froYn the board. Mr. Wood: Do you think you could get it for us? ; Mr. Coates: So far, Mr. Furkert and myself have not discussed it at all. I shall have to see him, of course.