GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20595, 20 June 1930, Page 10

GREAT SOUTH ROAD.

PAPAKURA TO MERCER. QUESTION OF SURFACING. BITUMEN OR CONCRETE. [BY TELEGRAPH- —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] PUKEKOHE, Thursday. A proposal that bitumen should be used instead of concrete to pave the 'Great South Road from Papakura to Mercer, or, alternately, that the road bo concreted from Papakura to the Pukekoha turn-off, a distance of 2.7 miles, and the remaining 14 miles to Mercer be bituminised, was received from the Main Highways Board by the Franklin County Council yesterday. In forwarding the proposal, the board s representative in Auckland,. Mr. F. S. Dyson, said the estimated cost of bituminising the road for the full length of over 16 miles was £IOO,OOO, which would mean that the county's share would be £25,000. The estimated cost of corcreting the road to the Pukekohe turn off and bituminising the remainder was £120,000, of which the council's contribution would bo £50,000. Bituminous penetration, such as had been used to pave, the road from Mercer to Rangiriri, was proposed. It was decided to notify the Highways Board that the council could not depart from its previous offer, namely, to recommend the ratepayers to sanction a loan of £20,000 toward the cost of concreting tho whole- length. It could nob agree to any modification of the proposed paving from concrete to bitumen, as members felt that only concrete would stand tho traffic and that in contributing towards the cost the county would need to know that tho paving would be permanent.