ROAD BEING IMPROVED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 3

ROAD BEING IMPROVED

ROTORUA—WHAKATANE WIDENING AND SEALING The Works Department now has 60 men employed on the reconstruction of (he Rotorua-Whakatane highway. It is expected that the whole route of 56 miles will be modernised within five years. The entire length will be sealed and the road broadened to a standard width of 33ft throughout. When the new road is completed the present two-hour journey between Rotorua and Whakatane will be reduced to one of less than an hour and a quarter. Bad bonds will be eliminated and hill sections will be reduced to a maximum grade of one in 12. The worst section to be realigned will be that skirting the shores of Lakes Rotoiti, Rotoehu and Rotoma. Barely 12ft. wide in places, the road now follows a tortuous route round the bases of cliffs with scores of dangerous bends. For several miles most traffic is reduced to a speed of less than 20 miles an hour. Big cuttings will soon by-pass these spots. The steepest hill on the present route is the sharp climb between Tikitere and Rotoiti. It has a grade of one in nine and as soon as its present sealing begins to deteriorate a new route will be built. The distance from Rotorua to Whakatenc will be slightly reduced and already at Tikitere, where work on the scheme is in progress, nearly half a mile has been eliminated.