PUBLIC WORKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 255, 25 September 1940, Page 6

PUBLIC WORKS

district activities.

peogeess at deviation.

Bv comparison with large undertakings which have now been completed there is little more than maintenance now being undertaken by the Public Works Department on roads m and about the Manawatu district At the Milson railway deviation work is nroceeding steadily and at Moutoa the development of the area to be used tor flax production is being pushed iorW Brtween 10,000 and 15,000. cubic yards of material are being shifted at the Milson deviation, each month, according to the type of spoil met with. The operations are now practically confined to the shifting ot material from the eastern end nearer Mikon to the western end, across Rangit.kei Line, where the station is to be located Some of the spoil is being deposit or)' nn the City Councils acre* near the station site, the level of this piece being raised to lessen floodin 0 and to make it more workable. Ihe ?ar“e culvert for the Alangaone Stream, at the western end of the deviation. was completed some time ago and more recently the building of the culvert for the Kawau drain, running underneath what is to be the goods and 'marshalling yard, on theeastern side of Rangitikei Line, was fimehed. culvert is 780 ft long and offers sufficient space to take the wafer of a large flood in the dram. Until the bridge over the Pohangina River near Ashhurst is completed, wdrk on the Range Road, an alternative to the Manawatu Gorge, is practically at a standstill. The contractor drove test piles and had others made on the job when the workmen were transferred to Waiouru for the extensions to the military camp, there, so that in the meantime there is no work being done in building the bridge. Practicallv all the steel required for reinforcing the concrete is on hand. A new two-way traffic bridge is built across the Tokomaru Stream cm No. 60 highway. This will be a marked improvement, as it will replace th present one-way structure At Moutoa there are about tO men employed, many coming from 1 oxton and Shannon, in the development of the newly acquired area for flax growing Some heavy machinery is being used for clearing and heavy ploughing preparatory to the actual planting. A number of men have been transferred from various public works undertakings in this district to Waiouru, a number of these being specialists in their respective branches.