FORTY FEET WIDE?

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 10

FORTY FEET WIDE?

HUTT ROAD BITUMEN

WIDENING PKOPOSAL

MAINTENANCE .AND SAFETY

The City Engineer, reporting to today's meeting of the City and Suburban Highways Board in regard to the ptoposal to widen the Hutt road pavement to 40ft, stated that the annual expenditure upon maintenance of the water-bound macadam haunches had, during the last three years, averaged £1050 per annum, of which probably £950 was accounted for by keeping the

"shoulders,'' where the bitumen meets the macadam, in order. That money capitalised would provide a considerable sum for widening the existing 24ft width.

The engineer stated that he had considered tivo methods of widening the pavement, by surface sealing and by bituminous surfacing. The estimated cost of surface sealing was £8000, and of the bituminous treatment £25,000. Surface sealing would be efficient for two years only, after which another sealed coat of asphaltic cement would

be required at a cost which would be equivalent to a maintenance charge of £625 every two years.

The engineer recommended that bituminous surfacing should be laid down, as, in his opinion, surface sealing would not stand up to . the punishment of heavy, fast-moving tr&.ffic.

SOME DOUBTS. Councillor B. G. H. Burn expressed doubts as to whether the widening of the Hutt road surface would prevent accidents, as horse-drawn vehicles would straggle into the track of motor vehicles.

Mr. D. M'Kenzie, Mayor of Petone, suggested that one macadam haunch should be left for horse traffic.

The.Mayor, Mr. G. A. Troup, said that horses quickly accommodated themselves to the new roads.

There would still be from 8 to 10 feet of macadam on either side, said the engineer.

The proposal to widen the surface was opposed by Mr. D. B. Hoggard; he was not, he said, at all convinced that there would be the saving indicated or that the accident risk' would be reduced.

The present width of pavement would be ample for many years as far as traffic carrying capacity was concerned, said Mr. E. Windley, and he thought that the greater width would in no way reduce the accident risk. He was not satisfied, moreover, that the wear and tear on '' shoulders'' would be avoided. /

The motorists' representative, Mr. S. G. Nathan, remarked that something must be done to safeguard those cyclists who would ride on the bitumen track, many of them without rear reflectors. The traffic officers should be instructed to give offenders warning. The question of widening is to •be further considered.