Improvement Sought To Kaikoura Road

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969, Page 30

Improvement Sought To Kaikoura Road

The Inland Kaikoura Road will be improved to class I if submissions by the Kaikoura and Amuri County Councils are successful.

This route would then provide a class I road link between Kaikoura and Christchurch. At present the No. 1 State Highway is class II from the Waipara Bridge to the Clarence Bridge. The improving of the Inland Road (State Highway 70) would still leave about 30 miles of class II highway between Kaikoura and Clarence.

Previously the two councils had been asked to justify the retention of the Inland Road as a provincial State highway. The representatives of the councils will make submissions to the Minister of Works (Mr Allen) when they are in Auckland this week for the Counties’ Association conference.

The Amuri county section of the road could be raised to class I loading by the strengthening of one bridge and the provision of two concrete fords as alternatives to bridges, a meeting of the Amuri County was told. Only

two bridges on the Kaikoura side were not up to class I loading, and fords could be provided at these crossings. “We could do our section of the Inland Road by November, but the raising of the coast highway to class I will be many years off,” said the chairman (Mr A. A. Macfarlane). Already some transport operators were carting through Murchison because they could not cart loads to class I weights down the main highway.