SOUTH AUCKLAND ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 79, 3 April 1928, Page 19

SOUTH AUCKLAND ROADS.

REPORT BY A.A.A, ROAD MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS CRITICISED. After travelling 1200 miles in the past week over what are generally termed back-country roads, I am convinced that there is something radically wrong with the Auckland roading conditions, States the A.A.A. service officer. Leaving Auckland the road to Hamilton in most places has deteriorated considerably. In several places large, loose metal has been raked over the road, and this provides a menace to fast moving traffic. Cars are liable to skid, and in the case of an inexperienced driver can very easily get out of control. The bridge on the south side of Mercer across the Whangamarino Stream is in a very bad state of repair. Excellent work is to be undertaken on the stretch between Mercer and this bridge, and during the next nine months this road will be levelled and widened . to < the standards of a modern highway. On that portion of the Rangiriri road which was tar-sealed last year, the edges are crumbling through the surface not being wide enough to hold double-way traffic. Further south through the Taupiri Gorge where the road was widened last year, maintenance seems almost neglected, and along the stretch between Taupiri and Ngaruawahia, the surface is anything but pleasant. The southern side of Ngaruawahia is badly potholed, and it is evident that the HamiltonNgpruawahia main highway is not receiving sufficient attention to cope with the vast amount of traffic which it carries. It must be apparent that this type of road is no longer suitable for the district. Some of Hamilton's improvements have been made, although the Te Kuiti'road is still. very rough in places. Good progress is being made on the Te KuitiTaumarunui highway, but I understand through the lack, of funds new deviations which have been made to obviate railway crossings have not been finished, and it appears to me that with heavy rain many poands' worth of damage will be needlessly caused. The present policy of holding up road work in the best season, due to lack of funds, is one of the causes of undue taxation, for when the mortev is forthcoming it is spent in the winter when there is naturally a great deal of waste.

Around the National Park excellent work has been done by the Prisons Department, and this year there Bhould be an all-weather route through from the south to the National Park. The eastern side of the National Park is receiving attention by the Public Works Department, and already the road is very much improved. In the No. 3 highway district improvements have been carried out, but the contrast is most marked once the No. 2 district'is entered north of Atiamuri. The approaches to bridges are very different from North Auckland. In the north most of the bridges are abo've or below the road level, and in one instance, just north of Wliakapara, I recently measured a bridge which projected 10 inches above the roadway. . In the - southern district it is almost an unknown thing to experience a bump when crossing a bridge, the level of the bridge and the level of the roadway being exact. In all my travels there was no metal road which was in any worse condition than the main highway between Auckland and Hamilton. On this road the only graders that I observed were in the Public Works Department area and the Iranklin County, and even these formed an unfavourable comparison with the graders which are employed in the south. In one instance I saw four horses and two men. being employed to work a | grader which probably would not do a quarter of the work which a power grader as employed in the south would do in the . same time. The methods of maintenance as employed in the south are very different from those in the north, and while itmust be admitted that the abundance of gravel in the south must help considerably, still I fail to see any reason why Auckland roads should remain in their present disgraceful condition. The association is actively interesting itself in the condition of affairs, and will leave no stone unturned to better conditions. Its object is to act in co-operation with the authorities, and to offer constructive add not destructive criticism. ■ SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE. | If we must have signs on the rear of cars, why not something constructive, like this: "If you like my driving, tell others; if not, shut up."