KEEPING THE ROADS IN ORDER

Southland Times, Issue 23897, 16 August 1939, Page 9

KEEPING THE ROADS IN ORDER

SOUTHLAND COUNTY WORK Some interesting facts and figures were given by Mr G. R. Milward, engineer of the Southland County Council, in a talk on engineering development in the Southland County at the Invercargill Rotary Club luncheon yesterday. ~ In an area of 3736 square miles there were 2150 miles of metalled and gravelled roads, the greatest portion of which was controlled and maintained by the Southland County Council,, said Mr Milward. By way of comparison he mentioned that in Hawke’s Bay the second biggest county in New Zealand, there were 1000 miles of roads. The State highways system covered 173 miles of road which the Government controlled, and there were 430 miles of ordinary main highways which the county controlled with a contribution towards the cost from general taxation. The remainder of the mileage of roads in Southland, 1564 miles, was maintained by funds contributed by county ratepayers. Each year an average of 30 miles of new roads were constructed and maintained. “The question may be asked: How do we look after those roads?” said Mr Milward. He outlined, on a map the various rivers from which the council obtained gravel and said that 150,000 tons of maintenance metal was required each year to keep the roads in proper condition. Southland was well equipped for the supply of gravel, as in.addition to the rivers there were pits from which the best type of road metal was obtainable. There were also deposits on the coastal areas such as Oreti Beach, Waituna lagoon and Fortrose. The only place where suitable metal was not easily obtainable was in the Waikawa district and there it was necessary to quarry suitable loading material. He referred to the progress which had been made in the county and said that 50 years ago heavily-built roads were required to carry the iron-tyred vehicles of those days. In 1912 vehicles with pneumatic tyres made their appearance and it was found necessary to alter the type ot surface. The heavy surface was no longer needed, and finer types of metal were introduced. USE OF GRADERS The next problem was how to keep the finer metal on the roads. The introduction of the power grader in 1925 helped to overcome the difficulty, and 10 years later the County Council purchased its first heavy power grader, a step which enabled it to keep pace with the demands of modern traffic. Today the County Council had seven heavy graders, eight of a lighter type and several other graders. Next there followed the stabilization of the road surfaces by sealing. Many developments had taken place in this branch of road maintenance. In place of the smooth bitumen surface there was introduced a mixture with coarser metal which gave a surface not as smooth as the fine bitumen but one much safer for general traffic. Mr Milward told of the bridge construction work which had been carried' out in Southland There were 22,000 lineal feet of bridges of 25ft span and more and many other bridges in the county. The first bridges were built of totara timber; then came the ironbark era. and today they built the bridges in reinforced concrete. The life of the first bridges was about 25 years; ironbark bridges lasted about 40 years and reinforced concrete bridges would last for 100 or perhaps 200 years. “Today every bridge erected in the county, with odd exceptions, is built of reinforced concrete.” added Mr Milward.