ROADING PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 95, 16 January 1926, Page 6

ROADING PROGRESS

STOPPAGE IN HUTT VALLEY

NO SERIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH WORK

There should be no alarm consequent upon the report that the road-making gangs employed by the Wellington City and Suburban Highways Construction Board have ceased operations temporarily on the Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt Roads. The reason for the suspension of this work is a slight difference of opinion with th e Main Highways Board as to the width of the newly-constructed bituminous road. The local board is of the opinion tha': the main road up _ the Hutt Valiev, as far as Upper Hutt, should be hot less than 24 feet wide, but the Main Highways Board has intimated its intention of only paying subsidy on an 18ft. construction. When this became known the city engineer endeavoured to effect a compromise in laying down a road 21ft. in width, but after some consideration the Main Highways Board adhered to its determination only to subsidise up to 18ft. So impressed is the local board with the desirability of the wider road as against the 18ft. road that rather than continue the work on the latter basis the gangs have been transferred to the Ngahauranga Gorge Road, which is badly in need of a permanent surface for the lower half-mile of. its length, and afterwards will continue on with the Petone-Day’s Bay. Road, pending further consultation with the Main Highways Board, the members of which are at’ present engaged, on a tour of the South Island. This blockage is only awkward in so far as concerns the transfer of the rollers. If the paving of the Main. Hutt Road is to be continued according to programme this season, an understanding will have to be come to with the board, or the. cost of the extra width (6ft.) will have to be met out of board revenue. The point has been raised at an awkward time, as the present may be considered to be the height of the paving season. As to the frequent references to the state of the road near the V.I.C. corner on the northern side of the Lower Hutt Borough, the opinion of the engineers concerned is that it may be necessary to give that section a foundation of reinforced concrete to bridge over the soft ground that is the resudue of a branch of the Hutt River which flowed over the spot at some time in the remote past. The claims of the Lowry-Day’s Bay Road are being pushed by the Hutt County Council, which has mentioned the fact that so far no permanent roading has been done in that district. The motor traffic to the eastern bays—Lowry, York, Mahina, Day's, Rona, and Muritai—has increased enormously during the past year, now that the road has been very greatly improved by easing the most prominent and dangerous corners, together with a good deal of filling on the seaward side. The engineers have already been over the road, and carefully inspected its state of fitness to receive hot-mix treatment, and it is understood that their opinion is favourable to the work being done this season.

The first meeting for this year of the local Highways Board has been fixed for January 26.