NEW ROADS FROM OLD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 38, 14 August 1923, Page 8

NEW ROADS FROM OLD

ENDING THE DUST AND MUD

NUISANCE.

A big consignment of bitumen, 1100 barrels, weighing up at 200 tons, has been landed from the Tahiti for' the City Council to be used in, the laying-down of permanent surfaces in several of the main city thoroughfares, notably Thorndon quay; bnt:-,the Work will,net be commenced until the weather settles down, for the late spring and summer, as bitumen can only be laid in dry weather, preferably fairly warm weather, as it is put down very hot, and sets quickly, being ready.for traffic within a couple of hours if necessary. The bitumen surface laid down in Cambridge terrace, largely by way of..experimental practice seven or eight months ago, retains a very fine running surface, but though the traffic there is heavy the test imposed by the Thorndon quay traffic will be very much more severe, and special attention will be paid to the laying of the metal foundation, and bitumenised binding for the running surface proper. Wellington has waited for a new Thorndon quay for a very long time; it has been a debatable point whether the dust nuisance in summer has been more, or less bearable than the mud nuisance in winter, but the bitumen surface promises to do away with both.

There is a big street improvement programme before the council and a considerable amount of special street laying machinery is on order, some of it being due to arrive'" next month. One of these machines, which will probably be first used in connection with the Wallace street tramway extension to John street, is a steam shovel, or navvy, which works in very much the same manner, as far as movements are concerned, as an expert shovel man; though it cannot throw its shovelful over its shoulder. It may be described as a cross between a steam, crane and a onebucket dredge, forcing the bucket forward into the spoil to be removed, and then lifting vertically to give clearance before swinging round. Later this , machinery will be employed in the laying of the new Hutfc road surface, but it is stated that that will mean that the Hutt road will wait another year or so before its surface is renewed. By that time'the work, already well overdue, will be urgent indeed. °