NEW TYPE OF FOOTPATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 80, 6 April 1926, Page 4

NEW TYPE OF FOOTPATH.

TO BE TRIED IN QUEEN STREET

SECTION IN FLAGSTONES.

WORK COMMENCES SHORTLY.

Before the end of this month the people of Auckland will have their first introduction to an entirely new type of footpath. In the past all footpaths have been surfaced with a coating of tar and sand, but the new type, which the City Council proposes to introduce as an experiment, will consist of a pavement of concrete blocks, each block being removable without disturbing the rest of the footpath. Only a short section, from Shortland Street to Vulcan Lane, on the eastern side of the street, will be laid down in flagstones, as an initial part of the new scheme. It will afford an opportunity of observing the new and the old type of footpaths under the best test conditions that are obtainable in the city; and, if the experiment demonstrates the superiority of the flagstone pavement, it is understood that it will be introduced on all the main streets of the city.

The decision to adopt concrete blocks is the outcome of a report that was placed before the council last year, on the question of improving the footpaths. The report showed that a comprehensive scheme would be a very costly undertaking, but the council decided that an experimental section should be laid down as a trial.

With the exception of the flagstone pavement that was formed on the footpath in front of the new University college in Princes Street last February, paving blocks of the kind proposed are unknown in Auckland. They have been introduced to some extent in Wellington, and one of the advantages claimed for them is that they do not lead to such a disturbance of the footpaths as at present, when water, gas and drainage mains are being attended below the street. Each block, being movable, can be lifted and placed back in position independently, and the irregularity that becomes such a conspicuous feature of an ordinary tarred footpath after a few disturbances is much less noticeable.