ROADING PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 86, 6 January 1926, Page 10

ROADING PROGRESS

JNEW YEAR WELL STARTED

JVILL SURFACE BEAR ' HEAVY LOAD?

Early on Monday morning the bituimen plants at Rongatai, Petone, and iTrentham were heated up, and promptly at 8 o’clock the work of laying down a permanent surface on the main roads '.was recommenced after the Christmas("New Year lay off. The position to-day is that the newest ( fclant at Trenthani is supplying liot-mix ’for a gang of spreaders, who arc working along the main road from Trenthani ■ towards the Upper Hutt township, and before the end of the month, all going well, they should have arrived at the ’heart of the new borough to be. The i 'Petone plant is providing the hot-mix for the road just beyond Waugh’s. A corner of Mr. Waugh’s property, donati ed by that gentleman, has been sliced ' off to provide for the straightening and ■ .widening of the road at that point. The work scheduled for this season within ttie Lower Hutt Borough area will be completed in the next few days. The two plants at Rongatai are going at ; top speed providing for the bituminous ' paving of the eastern side of Onepu ] Road, which was not completed last . year owing to the work connected with 1 the duplication of the tramway. track in that busy thoroughfare. This job i will be completed this week, when the ' gang will proceed straight on with the paving of the Queen’s Drive, working from the Lyall Bay end towards Island , Bay. The plants are all running sweetly, and with the expected period of settled Weather ahead good progress is likely during the next three months. The only cause for uneasiness, as far as the permanent roading scheme is concerned, is the growing doubt as to whether the hot-mix surface is likely to stand up to the traffic, which will increase as the years go by. Already serious trouble has been encountered in Thorndon Quay, due, it is said, to the top-course of sheet asphalt, with sea sand as its chief constituent. Part of the road beyond the V.I.C. corner at Lower Hutt broke up under traffic, and as the result sections have been renewed and replaced. There are now evidences of cracking in the bitumen surface in Chaffers Street, where (as was pointed out at the time) the founda- ' tion was poor, even for reclaimed ground.