MAIN WEST ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 8

MAIN WEST ROAD

IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND

SEALING EXPERIMENTS AT

PAREMATA

BETTER MOTORING AHEAD.

By the time the improvements to the Ngahauranga Gorge road, arc completed by the-Public Works Department. (to the "cost of which work the Makara County Council is to contribute '£12,000) the main road out of Wellington to the west .coast and the northern roads • generally"should ; 'be in very fair order, for there 'is new in hand ■work which will alter the appearance and the running .qualities of the: road to a point well "past Paekakariki. .' ' : ■ '' The plans for the realignment of the gorge road have not yet been ' made available, but it is evident that the work will be,'very heavy indeed. In the-first place the rocky formation is very solid,- as; solid and- stubborn as anywhere round Wellington, and .when the present roadway was set out, in the days of drays and gigs and no particular hurry, the easiest way was taken, with sharp, blind, turns, and hairpins in half a dozen places. . ■•>>'■.'. • ■ In the case of the^ Paekakariki: and Mungaroa hill road improvements the Public Works Department had no material; so: solid as the■ rodky. walls vf the Ngahauranga -gorge' to cut through, and there was not the complication of a stream liable to-sudden flooding as in the' gorge. Spoil cut from bad corners or obtained from -widening work on those two hill roads, could be tipped away on the downhill side without much trouble, but there .are notmany lengths in the gorge where) big quantities of spoil can be tipped'without, first taking care of the stream by ■ culverting or possibly by diverting the flow througn jutting points by tunnelling, as has already been, done; at "one point.' ' But for the difficulty of dealing with the rock drilled or. blasted -.out-in; the ,course of the work: a big quantity of first-class stone could be made available for roadwork elsewhere, and possibly something •will-be done in'this direction.- ■ ALTERNATIVE ROUTES. Whether, the road.will be completely closed to traffic,or not has not been definitely stated, but as far as the general public .are concerned tjie ibloek Iwill not be in^any way disastrous, as there' are alternative routes.'to 1 Johnsonville via the new Khandallah road or the, old cliff-climbing, Newlands road, while a certain amount of traffic'would probably cut across and come to the city via the Haywards road. ; This road,; however, is distinctly dangerous,' too narrow to allow two car's, to .pass'in-; many places, and really ,a thoroughly ; out-of-date road,' though' the surface is not bad, in these times' 1 of motor traffic. '. : It appears definite that the Ngahauranga Gorge road will .not be closed between" the:' Corporation quarries and the Hutt road, and therefore metar supplies for city work willl not be cut. off, and'it! is, probable' that stock could be driven to* the city abattoirs via • the Newlands road without any-great difficulty. '.' •■ '• ■ '■ •■... '• ■' ■"■-;' ]■ ..•■■■ •■ '.. The next 'length of the main road, under the jurisdiction .of the Makara County Council,. is> not* at present in remarkably .good-order; it is a macadam road without much gravel to take care of the potholes and smooth over the running until-such- time as the length is taken over and surfaced, possibly under the City ' and Suburban Highways scheme. The /Government has had in hand about five miles of the foreshore road leading to Pareniata, and has brought the/surface into:very fail 1 order, though in part there is more loose shingle and metal than plenty, two or three inches of it, to judge,by the way traffic behaves on it; Big improvements have been made, in rounding off. and cutting back corners, making for much easier driving and greatly 1 improved vision. EXPERIMENTS IX SEALING. Several sealing treatments are to be tried on this length, and just now the Public Works men are busy with a mile and a half to be sealed down .with a bituminous road oil. It is much thinner stuff than the'bitumen used in either hot mix or penetration work, somewhat thicker than old-fashioned molasses, and is sprayed hot, directly upon the fine finished macadam surface, after which metal chips arcs spread and rolled in. Another length in the .same locality will probably be sealed with a prepared tarj • another • given. a* surface:of'a• cold mix ■ bitumen already '• tried - ' but withgood success in several lengths in the city and Petorie, and still another may be given penetration treatment, that a comparison. of '.usefulness may be made under identical. traffic. ■ Sealing treatments carried out elsewhere about Wellington have not. stood up to traffic punishment too .well. ; ■■ ■ . < , ■. ■ \ EIGHTEEN MILES T7NDER .. : ' oowtiACT.; . ■•■ •' : From -. Paremata: to i the foot of. the Paekakariki Hill there is a stretch of about'seven'miles of foreshore road which is in the hands of a contracting company, but whether this company will be able to carry out its work (which ■ includes., avf urther i length of eleven miles between Paekakariki and Waikanae, also in the Hutt County area) within the time specified" remains to be seen, particularly if this winter is on anything like a par with last winter. The contract is for road formation, improvements to corners, and grade improvements at certain points, and is supposed to be completed in eighteen ;months, though only a small bite of a big job is so far very evident. It is stated that the plant now.on. the job will: be considerably strengthened very shortly, and fast progress will then be made. Later the reconditioned roadway will probably receive a surface coat. \. ■ The Paekakariki Hill road is a Government road, and is- in good order, but the length onwards to Waikanae, the eleven miles to be reconditioned for the Hutt County, does not start, away from Paekakariki with the same solid and smooth macadam surface; if it did of course, there would be no.talk of reconditioning.. Scarifying and rejrravelling should keep the surface in moderate order until the thorough overhaul and re-formation are given *by the contracting company.