CONCRETE HIGHWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 12

CONCRETE HIGHWAY.

FRANKTON TO HAMILTON.

A SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENT.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ]

HAMILTON. Friday.

The new concrete roadway from Hamilton to Frankton was officially opened hy the Mayor, Mr. J. E. Fow, this morning.

In his address, Mr. Fow said it was something new for Hamilton to hold a public ceremony at the opening of a road, but it was done with a view to stimulating public interest in the borough works. The public scarcely realised the amount of work that was being done at the present time. At an official ceremony in connection with a £110,000 drainage scheme there were only three spectators, and they came from Auckland. The Frankton highway would prove oil great advantage, and was an achievement of which the town might well be proud. It would have to stand perhaps more traffic than any similar piece of road in tll« North Island, and it had therefore been constructed on the panel system. The total cost was £10,950, which worked out at 14s pur square yard, comparing more than favourably with work of a similar kind. The low cost had been made possible by the contract for metal entered into with the Prisons Board.

The length of tho road was one mile and five chains, and as the expenditure %vas well within the amount of the loan raised, it had been decided to continue the vork to the railway station exit at Frank ton, which would give visitors a good impression on their arrival. The Mayor paid a tribute to the work of the men engaged on the re- cl, and congratulated the chairman of the Works Committee, Mr. P. H. Watts, and the h<vn»ugh engineer, Mr. W. H. Stevens, upon the result achieved. Mr. J. A. Young, M.P., ulso spoke, joining with the Mayor in congratulating those responsible for the highway.