CLOSING A ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 7

CLOSING A ROAD

JUSTIFIED BY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS.

In connection with the closing to heavy traffic of a portion of the NelsonBlenheun road by the Wairaea County Council, the following letter has been received by Mr. H. Atraore. M.P., from the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. J. G. Coates): —"I have received from you correspondence and petitions protesting against the action of the Waimea County Council in closing the road from Ludd Bridge to the Rai Saddle against heavy traffic for three months. In reply, I have to say that from a report furnished by the Resident Engineer it appears that the section of the road in question has never been in very good condition, partly due to tho impossibility of obtaining good gravel or metal at reasonable cost. A portion of the Wangamoa and Rai Hills and of the Wangamoa. Valley roads are soft and difficult to maintain a surface.., The road, never much good, has been steadily deteriorating, and the unusually wet late autumn and -winter has caused several miles to go completely to pieces. The action of the County Council in restricting Ehe traffic is strictly in accordance with its legal powers, and in all the circumstauces of the case the action appears to have been perfectly justified. If local bodies throughout the country had more generally adopted the practice of regulating traffic according to the capacity of a road to withstand traffic then many of the roads would not be in the shocking condition in j which they are to-day. It would doubtless interest ■ your correspondents to know-that even in Taranaki, where a high standard of tar sealed road construction has been achieved, that motorlorry traffic during the winter months is strictly regulated. How much greater,therefore, is the necessity to regulate such traffic where roads are merely water-bound macadam and perhaps only earth roads. Similarly in Wellington, the Hutt County Council has, for the past two years, restricted motor traffic during the five winter months to a total load of three tons (vehicle and load). Since the action taken by the County Council is strictly in accordance with its powers, it is, of course, impossible for me to intervene, and, as already indicated, I think the. council has done quite the right thing."