YEAR’S ESTIMATES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20097, 2 May 1935, Page 14

YEAR’S ESTIMATES

LEVELS COUNTY COUNCIL ENGINEER’S FIGURES At yesterday's meeting of the Levels County Council, the engineer (Mr T. Black) submitted the estimates for the coming year. The engineer said that as the Main Highways Board required the 1935/36 estimates before Saturday last, he had to forward them without having placed them before the Council, but as they were not accepted until the District Council meeting, there was still opportunity of making any alterations suggested by the Council. Under the heading of maintenance, he had made application for an expenditure of £5460 including a sum of £2ll for work done but on which no subsidy had yet been paid. The expenditure last year was £4627. This year there was expenditure on an extra secondary highway between Acton’s Corner, for which he had made provision for an expenditure of £468 for ordinary maintenance also for remodelling some two miles of the total distance of five miles 32 chains. The other estimates were practically based on last year’s expenditure. The engineer added that the estimates for construction were practically based on items already authorised, namely: Extra works, seal coat Wash-dyke-Maze’s, £3000; Maze’s to Sutherland’s, four miles preparation, £1280; Timaru-Pareora priming coat, £1547; Timaru-Pareora two bitumen coats, £3674; or Timaru-Pareora plant mix, £6187. The method of the finishing coat of the Main South Road would have to be determined at the District Council meeting. Surfacing Costs In a supplementary report, Mr Black stated that since last meeting he had gone carefully into the matter of the method of surfacing coats on the Point and Main South Highways and inspected various contracts under way or just completed. For the Main Point Road Mr Langbein suggested a second bitumen coat with fairly large chips and for the Main South Road 10 tons of fairly open plant mix to the chain honed to a smooth fine surface. With the priming coat this would give a thickness of about 13 inches, and would cost about 3d per square yard. A similar thickness of three sealed coat on the Main North Road between Washdyke and Arowhenua cost on an average 2/15 per square yard, the cost of priming and plant mix coat would cost say £7734 or £2105 per mile and the three-sealed coat £5221 or £ll4B per mile, costing the Council £1935 for the plant mix and £1305 for a coat similar to that on the Main North Road. There was no doubt that the honed plant mix leaves a much better surface than the sealed coats but whether it would stand up to traffic any better than the sealed coats he was not at present experienced enough in this method to advise. The reports were adopted.