ROAD SURFACES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21646, 3 December 1935, Page 12

ROAD SURFACES

Position in City CALLING TENDERS FOR MATERIALS Tenders for the supply of 200,000 gallons of tar and 300 tons (about 65,000 gallons) of bitumen, are being called by the Christchurch City Council, in accordance with a decision at the council meeting last evening. The supplies are needed for tar sealing of road surfaces in the next financial year.

In a report on modern road surfacing methods the City Engineer (Mr A. R. Galbraith) summarised the position of roads in the city as follows: (a) Practically all of the roads have a fair running surface. (b) Nearly 60 per" cent, of the total length has a sealed or heavier constructed surface in varying widths from 24 feet to full width. (c) The running surface of the sealed roads is generally fair, but some are getting fairly rough. (d) The unsealed roads are dusty in summer. (e) Most of the sealing has been done with tar, but a fair mileage has a finishing coat of bitumen and the life of the roads sealed with this is considerably longer than that of roads sealed with tar. The extra cost using bitumen in place of tar is from 10 to 15 per cent. (f) A bigger improvement to the road surface can be effected with tar sealing than with bitumen sealing. Experimenting Suggested The report proceeded to discuss the sort of tar or bitumen surface to be placed on different sorts of existing road surface. Mr Galbraith suggested that authority should be given for a certain amount of experimental work to meet local conditions. Tar sealing done since the last report included Colombo street south, Montreal street from Moorhouse avenue to Oxford terrace, part of Cranmer square and Lichfield street from Oxford terrace to Colombo street, the report of the works committee stated. Although requests had been received for sealing in Western terrace from Colombo street to Sandwich road, in Onslow street from Holly road to Derby street, and Clare road from Bristol street to Onslow street, these works could only be included in the schedule if others were removed from it, and the committee had therefore decided to leave the matter in abeyance.