PAVING EXTENSION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 9

PAVING EXTENSION

TO PORIRUA MAIN highways' suggestion A suggestion was made by the Main Highways Board in a letter to the local Highways Board, placed before members at to-day's meeting, that tho local board's work should be extended on to Porirua. Tho Main Highways Board stated that it was of opinion that steps should be taken to reconstruct, in either concrete or bituminous concrete, the portion of the Wellington-Auckland highway between Tawa Flat and Porirua. Tho Suburban Highways Board had already in hand the construction of a high-class pavement between Johnsonvillo and Tawa Flat, and the Main Highways Board considered tho time opportune to extend that pavement as far as Porirua. The Main Highways Board asked the Suburban Highways Board to consider taking steps to in accordance with the provisions of roads to be constructed and maintained in accordance with the provisions with the City and Suburban Highways Act. The Mayor said that the length was about two miles. Mr. E. Windley (Makara County Council) remarked that increased subsidies were now being paid by the Government for highways work through counties. The Main Highways Board had signified its intention of increasing the - to 1 subsidy to 3 to 1 in the case of roads adjacent to cities; the board would be entitled to a "-! to 1 subsidy as far as the length mentioned was concerned. At present tho board's scheme was rather lop-sided, for about twenty miles of road in the eastern area had been surfaced, whereas only eight or ten had been dealt with in the west. The board had started with a policy of main roads first, and it was in the interests of Wellington that tho pavement should be extended as suggested. The City Engineer recommended that consideration of the proposal should be deferred until the question of -the acceptance of tenders for the Makara length had been dealt with, and this course was agreed to. The board then considered, in committee, the alternative tenders for surfacing, in bitumen and concrete, the Makara length. A decision was reached as to the tender to be recommended, but before action is taken the matter must bo referred to the Main Highways Board. The Mayor moved, and the board agreed, that a portion of tho loan authorised, £10,000, should be raised locally to carry out the paving of.one and three-quarter miles of tli« Ngahauranga Gorge road during the coining season, and to meet the present deficit of £4903.