MAIN HIGHWAYS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 65, 17 March 1928, Page 11

MAIN HIGHWAYS

■♦ MONTH'S OPERATIONS SOUTH ISLAND TO. BE VISITED The usual monthly meeting of the Main Highways Board—Messrs. F. W. Furkert, Engineer-in-Chief to the Public Works Department (chairman), A. E. Jull, M. H. Wiuyard, C. P. Talbot, C. J. M'Kenzie, and J. J. Gibson—was. held at Wellington this week. The board recently approved the provision of funds for gravelling the Mamaku Hill on tho Waikato side, and this week it decided to extend the gravelling two miles further on the Rotorua side, wlucu lias been surfaced with rhyolitc. The board was not able to reach finality in regard to the declaration of additional secondary main highways. At its previous meeting (lie board decided upon a length of approximately 2000 additional miles of highway, leaving 400 miles to bo selected at a later date to bring tho total up to 3000 miles. A number of recommendations made by District Highway Councils were referred back to the councils concerned, all the' necessary details not having been supplied by them lo tho board. i Tho board has arrauged to visit the northern portion of tho South Island next month. The members will leavo .Wellington for this purpose on Friday, 13tli April, and their itinerary includes No. 12 Highway District, West Coast, No. 11 Highway District, Nelson, and No. 13 Highway District, North Canterbury, the tour iinishinf at Christchureh on 24th April. The report in regard to the progress of the work on the main highways states, inter alia, that a. start has been made with the metalling of the Tapapa-Mamaku section of the Hamilton-Rotoriia road; repairs to the Waitahgi Washout Bridge (on the Napier-Wellington road), which recently collapsed, are in hand, as also is the erection of the overbridge to eliminate the Piri Piri railway crossing. The re-erectiori of the Maraekakaho Bridge, on the Hast-ings-Maraekakaho highway, is almost complete. The widening, at Piebald Corner of the Johnsonville-Ta\ya Flat section o£ the highway has been completed, and progress is being made with' the first coat of seal on the Porirua-Paremata section. Five girder spans of the Manawatu River Bridge have been rivetted and placed in position during the month, and tlie formation of both approach roads is in hand. The erection of tlio Swamp Creek Bridge on the Greatford-Woodville road has been commenced. "A further length of sixteen chains of the Rimutaka Summit to Borough Boundary section is being widened to 24ft, and one mile of the hill section is being prepared for sealing. On the Featherston-Martinborough road, 1% miles have been given a final seal coat of bitumen and an additional 78 chains has becu grautcd with bitumen.