Display Of Road Building Ends National Symposium

Press, Volume C, Issue 29621, 18 September 1961, Page 16

Display Of Road Building Ends National Symposium

(NJB. Press Association)

WELLINGTON. Sept. 17. A demonstration of modern road-building equipment completed the two-day national road symposium organised by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Engineers and attended by some 360 delegates. The demonstration was held last week at the Kingston subdivision, Mornington. The exhibition included recently developed machines and equipment used for earthmoving, compacting, grading, metal course laying, bituminous and concrete paving, road marking, kerbing and channelling and drilling. Papers read at the symposium dealt with the design and construction of flexible pavements, the sealing and paving of rural highways, motorways and city streets, soil-cement stabilisation, lean-mix concrete bases for city streets and concrete road pavements. In a paper on the origin and destination survey carried out in Christchurch. Mr G. C. Suggate, senior engineer of the Ministry of Works, Christchurch, told the symposium that the survey had proved itself a practical proposition. Data from the survey could be analysed to provide a means for forecasting future travel, said Mr Suggate. “The reliability of the data has been tested and though, as a result, some adjustments have been necessary, it accounts for the traffic moving about the city on the principal highways at the

time of the survey and it t can therefore be assumed that the forecasts will do likewise. I ‘Thus it has been possible ' to prepare a sound founda- , tion of detailed design data ’ for the master transportation ■ plan. ’ Mr Suggate said no blueprint existed in New Zeai land for the surveys and . none for their analysis. “It has been necessary to proi ceed step by step, working . out methods and procedures . as the work advanced,” he explained. ' “Surveys of the magnitude ; of those Carried out in Christchurch with the con- ’ juent elaborate analysis ’ are not necessary in every case. Small cities can ob1 tain sufficient information ; from lesser studies. "Even in large cities, in special circumstances, lim- ’ ited surveys can be made to • meet the case or provide the answers to specific prob--1 lems,” said Mr Suggate. Mr M. A. Craven, general 1 manager of the New Zealand Portland Cement Association. ; told the symposium that j more permanent and more ‘ durable forms of road pave1 men’.s must be found. "When new roads are laid

out almost invariably it is known that the pavements on these roads cannot’ las more than a very few years without extensive repairs,’' said Mr Craven. In New Zealand there was some dislike for concrete pavements and yet those who had travelled overseas and seen the increasing use made of concrete pavements in other countries asked: “Why can we not have them here?” “Many of our roads have not been constructed up to the standard required to carry the weight and numbers of vehicles that now require to use them,” he said. “Their impermanency is such that the maintenance bill is becoming a very heavy burden upon our financial resources. “The case for concrete pavements is a strong one for, even in instances where traffic is light and concrete pavements offer no financial savings, there are other advantages which favour their use. “Foremost among these is that concrete offers a degree of permanency which so far has been quite unmatched by any other type of pavement,” said Mr Craven.