A FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXX, Issue 191, 21 August 1935, Page 3

A FIVE-YEAR PLAN

FOR SOUTH AFRICA

EXTENSIVE ROADING SCHEME

A five-year plan of national roadbuilding, which will link all the principal towns of South Africa by a chain of all-weather highways, will be launched by the new National Roads Board when it gets down to business at the beginning of the

financial year, 1936-37, states the “Sunday Times” (Johannesburg). Among the national highways that, will figure in this five-year programme which will in itself be only a first instalment are all-weather roads from Johannesburg to Durham, Johannesburg to Capetown, Johannesburg to East London, Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth, Capetown to Durham (coastal), and Johannesburg to Rhodesia. These roads will be made of bitumen in the first instance, and not only will they be meticulously drained and cambered, but they will be bridged xt every single point which might possibly hold up motorists in wet weather. “A bridge at every dip,” will be the watchword of the builders, and all the necessary bridges will be provided, even in the first stage of construction. A most importan provision in the Bill under which the board is to be

created is that the funds of the board

need not be used exclusively for the construction of proclaimed national roads. The board may in its discretion provide part or all of the funds necessary to build provincial main roads —namely, roads linking important towns in the various provinces. A road between Johannesburg and Mafeking would be a type of provincial main road which the board would liberally subsidise.