REALLY BIG FIGURES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1926, Page 10

REALLY BIG FIGURES

PAVING PLANT OUTPUT

TEAM WORK AND ORGANISATION.

A report made to the City and Suburban Highways Board by the City Engineer to-day contained some remarkablo figures of paving plant output, figures probably a long way ahead of those in regard to paving anywhere else in New Zealand, and, moreover, well ahead of the much quoted American records.

A good deal has been said of the team work of tho paving organisations, and certainly without such team work and real co-operation between every unit of the paving branch, quarry, plant, transport, and road workers such results could not be achieved.

During the past season, stated the Engineer, 327,385 square yards of pavement were constructed, this area being equal to 23J miles of 24ft standard width pavement. The paving season commenced on Ist September, 1925, when the No. 1 plant, Petone, and'the No. 2 plant, Eongotai, were put into operation. The No. 3 plant, Eongotai, commenced working on sth November, 1925, and the No. i plant at Trentham on 14th December, 1925. Tho plants ceased working on 31st May, 1926. There were 631 working days. A total of 208,074 batches of paving mixture was handled at the four plants and transported to the paving crews, raked, rolled, and handed over for public useage during that period. The total quantity of material handled was 55,951 tons and represented 20,807 motor-truck loads.

The average number of batches per working day was 329.75; 3855 tons *of bitumen, 1979 tons of filler dust, 32,957 tons of metal, and 17,160 tons of sand were used.

The total output of 55,951 tons was shared between the four plants as follows:—No. 1 plant, Petone, 14,182 tons in 169 working days; No. 2 plant, Kongotai, 20,336 tons in 217 working days; No. 3 plant, Kongotai, 12,942 tons in 129 working days; No. 4 plant, Trentham, 8491 tons in 116 working days.

The New Zealand-made plant, No. 3, led easily in regard to the average numbor of batches per day, 362.59; the two American machines averaged 315.92 and 349.86, and the English plant at Trentham 275.78 per working day.