GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 205, 30 August 1926, Page 5

GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

CONCRETE TO PAPAKURA. MANUKAU COUNTY'S SHARE. TWO TENDERS ACCEPTED.

"It is exceedingly satisfactory," said Mr. F. M. Waters, chairman of the Manukau bounty Council, this morning, when announcing that tenders had been tentatively accepted Jor concreting the two stretches of the Great South Road controlled by the county. Mr. John R. Page, the county engineer, pointed out that the figure brought the cost of a concrete road within very little of the Highway Board's estimate for a hotmix bituminous roadway. It will be remembered that for some time this urgent matter of putting down a permanent surface on the growinglyimportant road between the city and Papakura, through Otahuhu, Papatoetoe, and Manurewa, and the other districts which are fast becoming suburbs, was held up for a considerable time, as the Highway Board resolutely declined to contribute more than its quota of a bituminous road. The ratepayers, however, had seen what ' a concrete road meant to the outskirts of the city, and wisely determined to go to the expense of the mort popular material.

There are two sections of the Great South Eoad for which the Manukau County Council is responsible. The first is from Otahuhu to apatoetoe. a distance of 85* chains, contract Xo. 7S. Tenders were tentatively accepted this morning, tentatively because they have to be submitted to the Highways Board, and the successful tenderers were Bray and Co., of Onehunga, who have already done quite a lot of this concrete road work. Their price was £7692 15/6, which was very close to the estimate- of Mr. Page—£S4Bo 14/. Nine tenders were received, Bray's being the lowest tender and £12,224 the highest.

Four tenders were received for the larger section of the work under the council jurisdiction, that from Papatoetoe to Manurewa, a length of 201* chains, contract No. 79. The tender of the N.Z. Roads, Ltc\, £19.290 3/10 was tentatively accepted. The engineer's estimate * was £20,107 11/. Tenders ranged from the figure put in by N.Z. Roads to £22,558.

The tentative acceptance of these two tenders will be welcomed by the users of this busy highway, and wl«»u the work is finisher" it will help to complete a magnificent road of nearly 20 miles—which will be the longest stretch of concrete roadway either in Australia o.- New Zealand. At the present time there are still two small gaps to fill in between Aucklai-d and Otahuhu, but the Mount Wellington Road Board is now busy on its share, and the One Tree Hill Road Board will shortly get to work on its two short sections.