HALF-WIDTH PAVING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 11, 7 October 1927, Page 8

HALF-WIDTH PAVING

AUCKLAND PREFERS LENGTH TO BREADTH.

In Auckland the theory is tenaciously held that the only sort of road worth while is a concrete road. In Wellington is a similar theory that bituminous hotmix is the oulv pavement worth while. In the United States, with a rather more extended experience of traffic and pavements, the idea of the Bureau of Roads is that the type of surface to be used depends on the traffic, and that resort must be had to whatever material and whatever practice will yield the most economical transportation under the given conditions. If costly concrete and hot-mix pavements are the onlv sorts worth while it is useless to dream about having good roads all over New Zealand. Auckland is finding concrete costs coming heavy, and now has a project to make a 9-foot concrete strip over the 29 miles from Henderson to Helensville. This will be laid on one-half of the roadway, and it is proposed that the other half shall remain in macadam. The result will be one-lane traffic on the concrete, with one vehicle running on to the macadam when it comes to passing. It is estimated that this sort of roadway can be fixed up for about £5OOO a mile.' If thev want to get further out into the country with concrete in Auckland, they may be coming down yet to putting a couple of 6-inch strips for each wheel to run on—and lifesaving crews to rescue motorists who run over the edges.