PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 163, 12 July 1928, Page 18

PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITIES.

ACCESS TO RAILWAY

During the winter wort? has not slackened in the road which is being constructed by the Public Works Department to give access from Mangakahia Valley to Kirikopuni railway station. The metal for this road is being crushed at the Department's quarry at Tauraroa, and railed to Kirikopuni, where it is picked up by motor lorries. The return journey to the Mangatipa viaduct is 19 miles, and good tallies have beea made by the lorries, some of which have covered from 20<> to 238 miles in a day, carrying up to 19J yards of metal. At the viaduct, which is 200 ft ong, spanning a gorge in the Mangatipa Mountain, the whole of the 000 tons of steel work is in place and riveted. The hardwood girders and superstructure are now being laid. On the viaduct about 12 men have been employed, and on the road work from t>o to 70 men, throughout the winter. From the viaduct a two-mi'.e stretch of road, which links the viaduct with the Mangakahia main highway, will shortly be receiving its first course of metal. Throughout the winter stock from all parts of the north, coming via Kaikohe, has made use of this road to reach the railhead. Dargaville Branch Railway. The construction of the Dargaville branch'railway is making good progress towards Tangowaliine (10 mibs), where a site is being prepared for a camp which will accommodate upwards of 100 men. Houses for the staff-are in course of erection, the station site cleared, and southward of the township a start has been made on the drainage and earthwork, which will continue southward to link up with the dragline, which is making good progress through the Opiako Swamp, forming an embankment and draining the swamp, which is a portion of the property recently purchased by the Crown for closer settlement.

Between Tangowaliine and Dargaville (six miles) there is no very groat engineering problem, and as soon as the Government have determined the route which the line will take work will commence on that section. Approaching Dargaville the line will either be taken along the river bank across the approach to the Northern Wairoa River bridge and traverse a swamp into the present railway station, or will take a more westerly route, crossing the Awakino stream about four miles from its mouth, and crossing Awakino Road in the vicinity of the brickworks. Here an excellent site for a station has been located, within half-a-mile of the post office, and handy to all main traffic outlets Should this route be decided on, the line, after passing through the station, will dip under Hokianpa Road, linking up with the Kaihn Valley railway line about a mile to the north of the existing station Another much-favoured location for the railway station is the old Recreation Ground, which wr acquired by the Education Department in 1922 for a site for the Dargaville District High School, but subsequently was not utilised owing to the Department purchasing a 14-acre site on the hills in the vicintv. With an area of 21 acres, within 100 yards of the post office, this site is probably the most favoured locally. Officers of' both the Public Works and Railway Departments have recently made" a very thorough investigation of all the alternative sites, and an early decision is expected.