SEALING STREETS TO CHANNELS'

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 8

SEALING STREETS TO CHANNELS'

COST ESTIMATED AT £400,000 PROPOSAL TO REMOVE GRASS VERGES To seal to the channels the roadways in Christchurch which now have grass verges would cost £400,000. Two hundred miles of streets have the verges. Comparative costs of sealing against mowing and the magnitude of the cost involved in sealing were reported to the City Council last evening by the works committee. The report will be given further consideration when estimates for next year are being prepared. The average cost of cutting the grass and collecting it was 0.4 d per cut a square yard. Usually an average of three cuts was sufficient, so that the total annual cost a square yard would be 1.2 d said the report. “If this grass is removed and the road formed from channel to channel then the grass must be removed entirely, excavated and that portion of the roadway metalled. This area will then have to be sealed and this sealing maintained by the application of seal coats at five-year intervals. It may be that the seal coats will haveto be applied at more frequent intervals, but a five-year term is the longest time a tar seal coat can be expected to last.’’

The cost of forming, metalling, and sealing the roadway would be about 8s a square yard. This work could be given a 30-year life. The annual cost for construction a square yard would, therefore, be 3.2 s excluding any interest charges. Over this 30-year term, the road would receive six maintenance coats, each Is per square yard, making a total of 6s a square yard for the period. That gave an annual charge for sealing of 2.8 d a square yard. The total annual cost for this work would be 3.2 d and 2.8 d, making a total of 6d a square yard, and if other repairs were included the total would be 7d-9d.

“The cost of grass cutting allowing even for exceptional years with few cuts, as some wards have had this year, would be 2d a square yard. Magnitude of Cost

“The magnitude of the cost can be expressed in another way. If a width of only four and a half feet of grass verge be allowed on each side of the street, the initial cost of removal and replacement with metal and sealing would be more than £2lOO a mile. A preliminary examination shows that a length of about 200 miles would have to be treated at a cost of more than £400,000. Allowing for wider (than 4 feet 6 inches) roadsides the cost could be very much higher. Sealing the roadsides would thus increase the expenditure and give dreary roads. The roads would, of course, be much cleaner and tidier. This cleaner and tidier appearance could possibly be more pleasingly attained at about the same cost . by constructing a second kerb at the grass edge and frequently mowing.” The suggestion was made by Cr. G. Manning that the grass on roadsides should be Removed and the road kept clear of grass by householders. Even if six streets were sealed to the channels annually it would be a “good thing,” said Cr. J. E. Jones (chairman of the works committee). He was staggered with the costs. It was impossible for the present staff to do the work and also the development in the new streets.