EXCESSIVE LORRY LOADS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19903, 24 September 1926, Page 7

EXCESSIVE LORRY LOADS.

DAMAGE TO ROADS. AUCKLAND INSTITUTES CHECK. (From Oob Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, September 23. The Auckland City Council nnds it necessary to keep a close check on the loads carried by motor lorries, tne provision oi some miles of concrete road surfaces having placed a temptation in the way of owners of such vehicles to load them beyond the maximum allowed. Excessive loads may seriously affect new road surfaces, and it is for this reason that the council has found it necessary to exercise very strict supervision over the loading of commercial vehicles. Meters have been obtained, and they are now available for use in any pan of the city. The loud meters are in effect small portable weighbridges, easily carried on one of the traffic department's cars, or in the sidecar of a motor -yele. TTiev consist of a metal base measuring about 18 inches by 12 inches, and a floating platform with a weight recording dial affixed to the side. There are four meters, each capable of sustaining a weight of seven tons. When it is necessary to weigh a lorry with its load, the meters are placed on the road, one at the rear of each wheel, and the vehicle is backed until the wheels mount the platforms, the ends of the bases being graded to facilitate the manoeuvre. The dials record the weight resting on each wheel, and the total gives the combined weight of the lorry and the load. A number of tesW have been carried out with loaded vehicles which bad already been weighed on the Harbour Board’s weighbridge. in each case the weight recorded by (he meters was within a lev/ pounds of that shown by the weighbridge. Quite another use has been found by the City Council for the meters—namely, that of ascertaining the weight of Jamuna, the elephant at the Zoo. When Jamuna first reached Auckland she was weighed on the Harbour Board’s weighbridge., but since then there has been no opportunity of ascertaining the measure of her growth. It is proposed to build a timber platform, and when the animal has overcome her natural suspicions, and been persuaded to stand upon it the load meters will be place-1 under the main beam, and the weight Mill thus bo recorded.