REGIONAL PLANNING SCHEMES SUGGESTED FOR ALL RANGITIKEI

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 October 1946, Page 4

REGIONAL PLANNING SCHEMES SUGGESTED FOR ALL RANGITIKEI

A comprehensive programme for renewing bridges in the Rangitikei County is envisaged by the engineer, Mr. S. A. R. Mair, in a report which he has submitted to the Public Works Department, which requested details of any works likely to be undertaken within the county during the next 10 years. Proposals made by Mr. Mair are only tentative and have yet to be approved by the council, but the information is required for regional planning. The report refers also to road and highway works and the need for afforestation in sandy coastal areas.

No fewer than 35 bridges are listen by Mr. Mair as requiring renewal within the next. 10 years and nine of them are classified as urgent, indicating that their early replacement is desirable. The estimated total cost o. all bridge renewals is £119,100, of which £82,100 would be contributed by the Government and £37,000 by the county. The bridges are described as old wooden or composite structures, many of them being unsafe for modern sixwheeled lorries which are now transporting stock, wool and fertilisers to and from what were once remote back-country districts. This traffic, had undoubtedly come to stay and could not possibly be regulated to the weight of any safe-load restriction that may be imposed. DANGEROUS LOADS. “Both the primary producers and the transport associations demand that the bridges shall be made to carry the load and not the load limited to the bridge,” the report adds. “Bulldozers and heavy tractors are constantly moving about the roads providing a dangerous concentrated load on bridges, often not realised by the drivers themselves.” It was practically impossible to obtain timber for permanent repairs, and often temporary repairs, and it was imperative that a definite system of renewal in permanent materials be inaugurated to replace the 35 bridges enumerated in the schedule. Four of these bridges are on existing main highways, one being the Rangitikei River Bridge at Onepuhi. The estimated cost of this was £34,000, the three others bringing the total for main highway bridges to £40,000, of which £30,000 would be found by the Main Highways Board and the balance by the county. Referring to roads, Mr. Mair states that during the war improvements to main highways and county roads was at a standstill, necessary maintenance only being undertaken. Transport had increased in weight and volume, however, and a stronger and wider metalled surface was now required for the heavier lorries transporting stock, produce and fertilisers. Improved curvature was also required on bends where visibility was poor. “For many years the policy has been to regulate the traffic to the limits of the roads, but the economy of the evolution of transport increasingly demands improvement to the former to provide for the exigencies of the latter,” the report adds. ECONOMY AND SAFETY.

“The pre-motor days of slow-mov-ing traffic are gone, and till perhaps the air relieves transport, our economy and safety demands the benefits of improvements to ingress and egress for produce and people, otherwise the drift away from the land will not only continue but accelerate.” Mr. Mair selected 200 miles of county highways and principal roads on which he considers that the volume of traffic warrants a general improvement being carried out during the next 10 years. Expenditure suggested for these roads is £263 000, or an average of £1315 per mile.

“This does not provide for reformation to any given standard, but just for general improvements to alignment and surface where deemed necessary, and based on the volume traffic obtaining,” the engineer adds. One suggestion is that the route from Te Morehau Junction to Kuripapango, a distance of 46 miles, be a Government road or State highway. It is cleschribed as a main route connecting the centre of the island with Hawke’s Bay. It is also of first importance as an outlet from the Waiouru Military Camp to the whole of the East Coast. Because of this the county disclaims any responsibility for the cost of improvements, estimated at £50,000 over the next 10 years.

Second in importance, says Mr. Mair, is lhe Turakina Valley Road from Turakina township to Hihitahi, via Ranglwaea, a distance of approximately 50 miles. This is the main feeder road parallel to the Bulls-Te Kuiti and Wanganui-Horopito State Highways, and is also an alternative route to and from Waiouru Military Camp. “The whole of the area within the Turakina Valley is first-class pastoral land for sheep and cattle fattening and wool,” Mr. Mair adds. “The road is particularly narrow, tortuous and lightly metalled. It warrants a much higher class of construction than at present. My proposal is to spend £66,000 during the next 10 years on a subsidy basis of £2 for £l, the work to be done where traffic demands are the heaviest.” SAND DI NE STABILISATION. Recommending sand dune stabilisation and affo:estation, Mr. Mair states that the coastal area of the Rangitikei County is so situated that it receives the concentrated blast of New Zealand's wo: st south-west to southeast gales. Conusequently, sand dunes

extend further inland than at any other part of Cook Strait. “Drifting sand has practically ruined many thousands of acres of some of the best New Zealand land,” the report adds. “In spite of local preventative efforts this devastation continues, in places aggravated by stock eating out the vegetation with which Nature tries to reclothe its handiwork. “Several thousand acres bordering on the roast are owned by the Crown, and in the interests of lhe Dominion's economy, should be fenced off. stabilised with marram grass and planted in suitable trees. Over a long term this would not recoup the capital outlay by the sale of timber, but would be climatically beneficial to much inland agricultural and pastoral lands. “I suggest that 1000 acres per annum should he fenced and stabilised with marram grass and planted with suitable trees as stabilisation proceeds. Assessing the probable acres unit cost, at £l5. lhe 10 years would thus require £15,000 per aF.ium ; or £l5O 000 during that period.”