IN BAD ORDER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 34, 9 February 1926, Page 8

IN BAD ORDER

MACADAM IN HUTT VALLEY

NOT TO BE PAVED THIS SEASON

HOT MIX PENETEATION WOER.

There is now a clear run of bitumen track from Thorndon tram terminus, through Petone and Lower Hutt, to a point just beyond Waugh's Corner, but from then onwards, till past Trentham, is a long stretch of road in definitely bad condition, consisting largely of-pot-holes and bumps. It had been proposed to bituminise a considerable length of this, on towards the Hutt Eiver Gorge, under the City and Suburban Highways scheme, subsidised by the Main Highways Board, but when the road line was examined it was found that on account of a mistake made many years ago, the western fencing line was, for a considerable distance, ten or twelve feet too far to the east —that is, the fences and several buildings are erected actually on the road area. The Main Highways Board declined to allow the laying of the full pavement on the roadway as it was at present, but suggested that ten feet of paving should be laid along the true centre of the road and that the track should be made up to full width later on when road boundaries were put right. There was a further point of difference in that the local Highways Board wished to put down a, 21ft pavement and the Main Highways Board declined to subsidise on more than 18ft, leaving it open, presumably, for the local board to lay the other 3ft without subsidy, providing the road alignment was corrected. The local board has decided not to pave that length in the meantime, and has, instead, commenced work qn the Day's Bay road. Beyond this length is the gorge road, and here paving cannot be undertaken as big alterations will be made in road widening and straightening in connection with the building of the new railway, which will join up with the existing line at Silverstream. The next length, from Silverstream on towards Trentham, is to be paved, from the Trentham plant, following the completion of the surfacing now in hand between Trentham and Upper Hutt. WHAT OF THE WINTER? Just what condition the roadway between Waugh's Corner and the Silverstream Eailway Bridge will fall into during the winter if present methods of maintenance are followed may be best imagined after a trip over summer potholes and bumps after a summer shower; There is probably ample gravel on the roadside, thrown outwards by traffic, to fill the holes and keep the surface in very fair order, but nothing short of steady work with a road.drag or the continuous employment of a maintenance crew with largosize shovels and hearts would Beem able to keep the road in decent shape and save it from falling into still more serious disrepair. HOT MIX AND PENETRATION. About a mile and a quarter of bituminous pavement has been laid just this side of Upper Hutt, and beyond the township about a mileoorf r the Hutt County's penetration road. This surface, though not yet given its sealing coat, has a solid and good running appearance. The penetration road has been referred to as "an inferior type of pavement," but that view is not held by all roading authorities. It will be extremely interesting to note the behaviour of this length as compared with that of the hot mix road which, when completed will join up with it. Both penetration and hot mix lengths at Upper Hutt are being put down under the supervision of the Main Highways Board, which has required several alterations in method in both eases. The Main Highways Board, for instance, has insisted upon the laying of an extra depth of hot mix pavement where the road foundations were bad or have been weakened in levelling off work. Temperatures of material as delivered to the road are taken by the board's inspector, as well as samples of aggregate as they run into the mixing trough of the plant.