BITUMEN TRACK IS COMPLETED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17877, 19 June 1926, Page 2

BITUMEN TRACK IS COMPLETED.

VICTORIA TRAM ROUTE COSTS BOARD £19,900. The laying of bitumen on the double track on Victoria Street from Bealey Avenue to Colombo Street, a distance of 114 chains (or 57 route chains) has cost the Christchurch Tramway Board £19,900. This will not be a charge against the revenue account, but will be taken out of the board’s renewal reserve fund which has been accumulating for some years to meet this and similar contingencies. Interviewed this morning, the General Manager of the Tramways (Mr Frank Thompson) stressed the necessity of coping with modern conditions of traffic. He said that the steel-tyred vehicles of some years ago helped to roll and consolidate the road surfaces; but the flood of motor-cars comparatively recently the roads were being sucked to pieces by the inflated tyres. This was a point that many critics both of the City Council and the Tramway Board failed to appreciate. The board’s plan was to put its tracks in such a position that they would be able to withstand the new conditions of traffic. The tramways were probably the first in Christchurch to use concrete and bitumen, and the experience gained in the laying of the track in Victoria Street, even though the work was hampered by bad weather, had been very useful. Regarding future operations, Mr Thompson said that the duplicating plants for mixing concrete, welding and hot-mixing would arrive shortly. An amendment had been obtained in the industrial award to allow of shifts being worked in the summer months, and the board was awaiting the opportunity to bring this into operation. With the advent of summer work could proceed from early morning until sunset.