STREET MAINTENANCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 56, 15 June 1910, Page 2

STREET MAINTENANCE

HEAVY COST EXPLAINED. The following is the text of a report submitted to llis- Worship the Mayor by the borough engineer, Mr. A. H. Kendall, concerning the heavy cost of street maintenance last year: —

"In accordance with your instructions, I have the honor to report that the apparently heavy item of £2750 in the past year's expenditure on streets is made up of an extra amount of metal and gravel placed upon the streets. In addition to that a very large part of the expenditure has been caused by the tilling necessary to bring the footpaths and streets up to the proper levels after new kerbing and channelling was put down. The footpaths, especially in all those streets where kerbing and channelling has been put down (with the exception of Devon street) have taken enormous quantities of earth filling which entailed a great deal oi labor. The work was absolutely necessary. The roadway also had to be made up, and the whole covered with goal gravel or with metal us circumstances required, and seeing that there were over two miles of kerbing put down, and a large amount of channelling, the greater length of which required filling in on both sides, it is easy to see what a vast amount of filling had to be handled to make up for past wear and tear and removal of the surface by the old time system of repeated cleaning and weeding. In addition to this work, which, together with new metal, has been primarily responsible for most of the expenditure, scavenging and watering have received somewhat greater attention than formerly, and together they account for a not inconsiderable part of the total. The balance of work required in Gill street between Brown and Hobson streets, and the cartage of earth to cover rubbish and street formation or filling at Fu-lford street depot, have together helped to swell the total. A total of 3804 yards of new metal have been put down during the past two years (in addition to 1500 yards of the best goal gravel obtainable, and several thousand yards of clay filling for footpaths and streets), as against 3275 yards for the previous two years. "With regard to the employees, I think that at no time in the history of the borough has there been a better staff on the pay-roll, and any case of shirking of duty has been promptly dealt with, I quite recognise that the present staff is too numerous, but with your permission I propose to retain the services of most with a view to getting the work» in Queen and Currie streets pushed oil to completion as soon as possible in preference to having these works extended over a long period of time, or if you direct I will reduce the iiiunyiers at once, or after these works aire completed several of the men can l|e, dispensed with." » . :