HIGHWAY AFFAIRS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 19

HIGHWAY AFFAIRS

BOARD'S TOUR ENDED MORE THAN 60 CONFERENCES fBY TELKCKAPB PHESS ASSOCIATION*"] WELLINGTON, Friday Members' of the Main Highways Board have just completed a visit to the Wauganui, Taranaki, King Country, Hay of Plenty and South Waikato districts. In the course of the tour the party held more than CO conferences with local bodies. Seen to-day, the chairman, Mr. J. Wood, said it was three years since the board had last visited these districts, and improvements carried out were very marked! Some criticism had been made regarding the extensive improvement work in hand on various State highways, and it was found that local opinion did not appreciate the fact that approximately 70 per cent of rural traffic was confined to State highways. Measures sponsored by the Hoad Safety .Council for improving conditions, with a view to reducing the possibility of accidents, were explained, by the board in justification of the policy of re-aligning portions of the highways where visibility and curvature were considerably below the standard necessary to carry the intense .traffic now using the roads. Every detail of improvement, ho added, was subjected to close engineering investigation before the final proposal,was adopted, and experience, had shown that in many instances a bold scheme of reconstruction was more economical than®a -modified one.