TOE SOUTHERN HIGHWAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21897, 8 March 1933, Page 11

TOE SOUTHERN HIGHWAY

BRUCE COUNTY SECTION NEED FOR RECONSTRUCTION {HIGHWAYS BOARD’S PROPOSALS I; I Many complaints have been made dur'■}ng recent years regarding the state of the main highway through the Bruce County, which extends from the Taieri Ferry bridge to North Balclutha, and with a view to considering the most practicable manner of permanently improving the road the Bruce County Council held a conference with the Main Highways Board’s representative (Mr T. M. Fall) at its meeting yesterday. The chairman (Cr V, Wilson) explained that the council had asked the •Highways Board to send an officer to consult with it with a view to finding ways »nd means of carrying out improvements to the road, and this had resulted in Mr fall’s visit. . COST OF RECONSTRUCTION. Mr Ball said the problem was a difficult one to attack. Th e portion of the road requiring the most urgent attention was that between Taieri Ferry bridge ■and Clarksville, a distance of 14 miles 64 chains, and some time ago he had made out an estimate of the probable cost of reconstructing the road for that distance. The formation and various improvements were estimated at £11,200, the metalling at £24,000, and bitumen surfacing at £19,050—a total cost of £54,250, or approximately £3670 per mile. The whole trouble, Mr Ball said, was that in its present state it was only a one-way road. When it was formed it had been laid (down with blue metal 12 feet in width, and this had got completely out of shape, •with the result that there was now an excessive camber, and it was dangerous to attempt to use it as a two-way road. He could not see that the council could make any lasting improvement without re;shaping the road altogether. He pointed !©ut that if the council did this itself it would incur a great ahiount of expense, and he thought it would be wise to accept the Highways Board’s previous offer to reconstruct the road at a cost to the council of £6O per mile per annum. Besides being relieved of the responsibility of reconstruction, the council would be able to ehift on to the Highways Board some of the odium that naturally attached to the body controlling such a road. Speaking of the amount that had been necessary for the upkeep of the whole section of the road during the past tew years, Mr Ball said the cost per mile to the council had been as follows: 1929-30, .£64; 1930-31, £4l; 1931-32, £4l. iThe actual amounts paid by the council iin those years for the whole distance of about 27 miles from Taieri Ferry to Balclutha were £1732 16s, £lllO 0s 6d, and £llOl 15s sd, and the respective subsidies paid by the Highways Board were £3465 11s lid (£2 for £1), £2220 Is Od '(£2 for £1), and £3305 6s 2a (£3 for £1). When the section became permanently surfaced with bitumen the cost of the road to the council would be £IOO per mile per year. It would not be possible to use unemployment funds for the work, as assistance could not be obtained from that source when they were receivm H • money from other Government sources. “BITUMEN .OUT OP THE QUESTION.” I Or Clark said the council had been int formed by a prominent Highways Board 1 official that unemployed could, be used in that work. Men, he said, could easily be brought out from Dunedin for the purpose, and a camp could be established somewhere on the side of the road. There , was no use, however, in Mr Ball talkI i D(r about a bitumen surface, as it was totally out of the question at the pres- ! ent time. He had been informed that 1 the Main Highways Board would lay the road off, and the council could supervise the wort. Mr Ball pointed out, however, that Cr Clark was over-estimating the importance of unemployed labour, ine difficulty was that labour would amount to only 10 or 15 per cent, of the cost of the work, and his idea was not a very practicable one, aa it would be a hard job to carry out with unemployed la C°r Ur Clark agaiq stressed the fact that the council could not afford to pay for a bituminieed road, and maintained tha mich a surface possessed many disadvantaS Mr Ball; What about, the main highway through the Taieri County. You ought to take off your hat to the Taieri County Council every time you drive Clark: The biggest bally fools I’ve ever seen in this country. Was it right to ask people at Middlemarch to pay for Jhe tar-sea?ing of that road? They knew it wasn’t, and then: as a. sop they gave them the Deep Stream deviation, lax sealing was made for big sedan cars, ana not for the ordinary purposes of country traffic That’s what brought the cars here, and it’s a pity they ever came into th Mr° Balf’ instanced the Hawera and Stratford counties, which, he said, naa cone in for tar-sealing as a policy 20 years ago as a means of saving money and reducing the rates, and they had done that. Cr Moore said they had not brought Mr. Ball there for the purpose of allowing Or Clark to have an argument with nun. Turning to the subject of the road, he said the council had had the opportunity a I year ago to accept the Highways Board s offer, but had‘ turned it down on account of the expense involved. They had reduced the grading costs;to the absolute minimum, but had graded and graded the road until there was practically nothing left of it. The grading, however, had not been done in the proper manner to cope with modern traffic, and all the criticism the council received in respect to it was justified. The portion from Waihola to Taieri Ferry had been given a certain measure of reconstruction, but easily the worst section was a distance of five or six miles between Waihola and Milburn. it might pay the council to tar-spray the road, and do away with grading for ever, as in its present state the portion he hau mentioned was a danger to traffic, and particularly to push-cyclists, who were liable to skid at any time in the loose gravel, and might thus be thrown under the wheels 1 of passing motor cars. A COUNCILLOR REBUKED.

Cr Sheat asked Mr Ball whether the Highways Board would consider taking over the reconstruction of just one.section of the" road, for instance, the five or six miles between Waihola and Milburn. Mr Ball said he was going to suggest that as a last resource. There were a lot ot corners on that piece of road, and if the council was so intent on securing unemployed labour it would probably be necessary to make a deviation there, and the unemployed could be used to carry out the formation work. They could not be used, however, for the metalling.

; Cr Clark rose again to express somewhat forcible views on the subject of dcviations, and carried on despite the fact that Cr Moore rose to a point of order. When he had finished, Cr Moore said, addressing Cr Clark, “When a councillor rises to a point of order it is customary for the councillor who is speaking to resume his seat. You have had your say, and I think it is time the other councillors had a chance to say something.

(Laughter.) Cr Kenton said there was no doubt that it was time they did something. They had ample proof that they would achieve nothing by continually spreading loose gravel on'the roads, as it corrugated so easily, and was difficult to keep in position. It might be better to put it on as it came from the river. , Mr Ball said that to build up the substance of the road a quick-setting gravel would be better. .Cr Allison suggested a yellow gravel, which, he said, consolidated well, and could be used to build up parts of the

Regarding the proposed cost to the council if it adopted the Highways Board s proposition, Cr Boylen said he thought the council should receive some consideration on account of the fact that the Bruce County roads, and' especially their portion of the Christchurch-Invercargill highway had to carry an unusually large amount of traffic from the south and from Ceiitral Otago.

BEQUEST TO HIGHWAYS BOARD. Cr Driver said that any scheme they could get would be cheap to the ratepayers in the long run. They might as well throw the money away that they were spending on gravel at the present time: the gravel was graded on the road one day and it was in the gutter the next. If Mr Ball could hold out any