BETTER HIGHWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 12

BETTER HIGHWAY

[ROUTES TO THE NORTH IMPROVEMENTS AT ALBANY I TO BE OPENED AT EASTER \ % BRIDGE AND CORNER WORKS It is expected to have another important new link in the improved main highway to North Auckland open to moto£ traffic at Easter. It is that section of newly-aligned road, widened and straightened, running over tho hills for about three miles from Albany. All heavy' reconstruction work is finished, , and when a suitable surface has been provided the road will be ready to carry traffic, although it will not be tar sealed for at least a year.

Long deviations become apparent from, the time tho bridges into Albany have been crossed. The first bridge is iv ■vast improvement on that which was tucked away in a dangerous and deceptive corner for 27 years. It is now directly in line with the remainder of the road. There is a climb of Ift. in 15ft for a mile and a-half beyond tho hotel, in which distance the new highway crosses the old one 13 times and six times in about the first half-mile. Use of Machinery Four big cuttings were necessary in the redirection of the road, and upon them work is being concentrated at present. There is a staff of about 40 men under the supervision of the publi# works foreman, Mr. H. Smitt, attached to the Auckland office. A costly feature, and one avhieh requires much time, is the provision of minor detours around cuttings and linking the existing route while work is in hand. The longest cut through the Albany hills is 13 chains. It is 34ft. deep at its 'Steepest part, the excavation averaging 5000 cubic yards to the chain. The spoil was carried by as many as five trucks over distances of tip to three-quarters of a mile to bs dumped into gullies, which the new road was to cross. The deepest filling was fiearly 34ft., but it was not ft long one. Machinery capable of doing many more times the amount of work in a day than a gang of men was employed along the route. An excavator and a huge'2o-ton "bulldozer," or carryall scoop, are still being employed. Tho scoop is one of the largest of its typo in use on New Zealand roads. It is indispensable in levelling long tracts of country with a 12ft.-wide scouring blade which it pushes before it, at the same time hauling an enormous scoop, i 'Better Visibility on Bends I

Sweeping curves conform to the modern trend in highways, making it possible for driving to be maintained at a steady pace throughout. Most of the corners, which are no longer corners in the strict sense of the term, have a -radius of over 10 chains, They are banked 1o a width of 32ft., whereas on longer curves and straight stretches the highway in part is 30ft. wide. : Undulating, winding road for about two and a-half miles from the top of the hill beyond Albany may also be discarded by Easter if the weather r€iroains fine. Tho new alignment departs entirely from the present highway to give further easier grades and better visibility. It crosses the old road at a sharp angle in only one place, and halts at the camp some four miles from Albany. After Easter it is expected that the Albany staff will be supplemented by another 10 men. Good progress should then be made with the remaining four miles of comparatively easy formation to Massey Eoad corner, some four miles south of Silverdale. This will link the beginning of a long stretch of sealed surface, and the first section under tho control of the Whangarei public works office. Double Hairpin Curve Eliminated With fine new double-width concrete bridges: at either end of the road around Orewa Beach, the paved highway between Silverdale and the new Waiwera deviation, is in excellent condition. Since being opened about four months ago, the new route over the Waiwera hills as far as Puhoi has been in the process of consolidation, preparatory to being sealed during the next summer season. The paved surface should then extend unbroken from Silverdale to Topuni, a distance of about 50 miles. Long, easy curves cut across and eliminate the double hairpin bend of the forme/ road dropping steeply down into Waiwera. This bugbear to the motorint has been admirably overcome, while near where the highway again reaches sea level a novel bridge has been provided to obviate a dangerous rightangle crossing with the Upper Waiwera Eoad. The bridge, carrying one road over another, is one of few of its type in New Zealand.