OBSOLETE METHODS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2514, 15 December 1927, Page 4

OBSOLETE METHODS.

Some frank comment on the tunnelling methods of the Public Works Department were made to a Wellington paper by an English engineer who is at present visiting the Dominion. The whole designs of the tunnels and the methods of work are antiquated, he stated, and if the work is carried out on present methods it will take three times the amount of money out of the taxpayers’ pockets than should be necessary. It is presumed that the critic speaks with the authority of experience, and it is not pleasant reading to the taxpayer. This class of work requires special experts, and it is only those with practical experience who can be relied on in such matters. To the average layman, however, road-formation is more easily understood, and it has long been a

sore point with those interested that something has not been done to carry this work cut on more up-to-date lines. The opportunity of doing this has now been given the Main Highways Board. The Beard has an annual revenue of over a million pounds and is in the position to purchase modern machinery. We have advocated that the Board take over the main highways, our contention being that the Board is in a better position to carry out a heavy undertaking of this kind than local bodies, who have not the money to purchase costly appliances of this kind. This is the age of machinery. It means a heavy initial expenditure, but is more economical in the end if the work is offering, and it cannot be doubted that, with the development of the country, enormous sums will be spent in road-making throughout the Dominion for the next half century. Once the main highways have been completed the Beard should be able to come to an agreement with local bodies to bring the subsidiary roads to a higher standard with the labour-saving appliances which it owns. Many county councils and other local bodies, with their limited finances, have to rely on the wheelbarrow and shovel methods of roadmaking, but with the assistance of the Main Highways Board they should be able to work much more economically, besides giving better results. There is something to be learned in the criticism of the, civil engineer from England when he condemns the obsolete of tunnelling.