BOMBAY DEVIATION

Taranaki Daily News, 13 February 1933, Page 9

BOMBAY DEVIATION

SEALING COMPLETED. ROAD OPEN FOR TRAFFIC. The tar-sealing of the Bombay deviation, on the New Plymouth-Auckland main highway, has been completed and the road is again available for motor traffic. The work has been carried out in a very expeditious manner, with a minimum of inconvenience to road-users, who had to travel over the steep grades of the Razorback Hills for only a very short period. It will be necessary for a time for traffic to proceed slowly to give the new work time to ‘iture” properly. • The large notices .which were erected by the Auckland Automobile Association at Christmas time, Warning motor- 1 ists that the speed limit of 30 miles an hour would be rigidly enforced, are still in position. To emphasise the fact that the speed limit still applies the association has placed red flags on top of these notices, as it is. concluded by thespeed that some vehicles are travelling that it may be thought that the speed limit has been lifted. Drivers of heavy vehicles are warned that the regulation speed ..applying to their particular weight of vehicle must be strictly maintained. The Auckland' Automobile Association makes an appeal to all road users to co-operate with the authorities for the short period that it will still be necessary fox- the restriction to apply. The association states that the work completed up to the present is only a' single coat of sealing; Had the funds been available it was not likely that the Main Highways Board would have left so important a road with such a light surface. It > had been only by a very great effort i that the board had found sufficient money to carry out even this amount of -work, and unless road users co-operated by reducing speed the application of further sealing and more permanent work would be made a more costly matter. The work of metalling the short deviation on the Great South Road, about a mile north of the Bombay Hills, was commenced on Saturday by the contractors, Messrs. H. Bray and Company; of Onehunga. The new route, known as Wright's deviation, ,is level and about 50 qhains in length. It will obviate steep gradients. Most of the excavation find formation work has- been done by. the Public Works Department, but Messrs. Bray and Company’s motor, “navvy” shovel will be used. The new route will be Surfaced with 6in. of metal. It is expected that the work will be completed in a month.