TARANAKI ROADS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 June 1925, Page 4

TARANAKI ROADS.

WELLINGTON PARTY IMPRESSED “SOMETHING TO SHOW THE REST *UF NEW ZEALAND,” The delegation sent to Wanganiii and Taranaki by tne. Wellington City and Suburban Highways Construction Board of 'Control has returned,, apparently a good deal impressed by its. experiences. ... , . In the course of conversation with a Dominion -reporter Councillor ? H. D. Bennett stated that it had been' agreed not to‘ go into detail respecting their investigations until such time as a report nad been framed for the board. Tlie party, which left Wellington at noon o JI Monday, went through to Wanganui that day, and there was joined bv Mr. Toswiil, the engineer for the Wanganui County (who had been engineer of Eltham Comity before he went to Wanganui), and also the Wanganui city engineer (Mr. C. Sta-vely), wno was interested pi the reading problem. At Wanganui they found that the only form of road was the tarred macadam and hot-mix sheet asphalt, which seemed to serve the place very well. On Tuesday they puslied on towards Taranaki, and on the road they picked up the chairman of Patea County (Mr. Gibbs), and with him an -inspection was made of a special bit of road that was being treated by the penetration method. The read was first of all levelled and rolled, then it was given about five inches of good clean to 2-inch metal, arid over this hot tar was run in, and whilst the tar was still warm tne whole mass was blinded with metal chips and rolled into a solid body. This road was opposite the Bap Road 'railway station, off the.main read, but was being treated a s a national .highway. Mr. Bennett stated that the job looked all right). Then, in company .with the. local road engineers, the delegation inspected, the tar-sealeci roads in and around Hawera, an of which appeared to be in excellent order. Near Eltham thev (in company with Mr. Belcher,' Eltham County chairman), diverged from the main road to visit a. back road which had been tar-sealed sixteen vearg ago. The read seemed to most of them to be as good as ever it was —it was as good a road as one could wish. On the home journey from New Plymouth the trip round the mountain, which was made without incident on t’ar-sealed reads that were evidently kept in the best of good order, and so on to 0-punake, where they were met by Mr. Corkill., the engineer of the Egmon-t County Council, who saw them on their way to Manaia, and so back to Hawera. "

Mr. Bennett said the trip was well worth while, and should not be without benefit to the roads of Wellington city and district. Taranaki had certainly something to show the rest of New Zealand. The visit would not alter their policy respecting the heavy traffic roads, but might mean overhauling it in regard to roads that were only asked to carry a moderate amount of traffic, and residential streets. A f 114 report will be furnished to the Board of Control at its next meeting. Mr Bennett added that personally he was particularly struck with the way the main road from Wanganui to Hawera was standing up to the demands of heavy traffic. . There were now ten-ton trucks running over this road daily, and it did not seem to him that they. were affecting the surface to any appreciable extent.