Early road building

By Judy Waters

A hundred years ago there was hot debate about the use of catamaran sledges. This form of conveyance did no end of damage to the roads as the nose of the catamaran acted as a plough; whereas ordinary sledges tended to float over the mud. Where wheeled traffic quickly became bogged, the catamaran furrowed through and many settlers depended on them to access winter supplies.

On June 13, 1913, the Rodney County Council met to discuss a ban on catamaran sledges. Mr Wyatt, representing Omaha where the sledges were widely used, spoke against the ban. While conceding the sledges did damage, he was hopeful better roads would be forthcoming making the use of wheeled vehicles possible in winter.

The various road boards that gradually amalgamated with the Rodney County Council faced a yearly dilemma of where to use barge loads of shingle and cart-loads of metal to the best advantage.

In 1916, a new controversy arose. Mr. T H Wilson returned from United States and Canada where he had spent six months studying the many uses of concrete. He reported his experience of travelling on miles of concrete roads in both California and Vancouver. The estimated cost of £2000 a mile was beyond the resources of council. However, there was considerable interest in a plan to lay an experimental section of concrete road near the sale yards and show grounds, about a mile north of Warkworth. It was to be four chains long and nine feet wide, with a metal shoulder on each side.

Unfavourable weather delayed the work in December 1916 but it was completed in January 1917 and left to cure before wheels passed over it.

A roller was borrowed from the Warkworth Town Board and a concrete mixer is visible in the photograph but all told, it must have been an extremely labour-intensive exercise by today’s standards.

Pictured: NZ’s first stretch of concrete road still lies buried under SH1, in front of where today’s Warkworth Showgrounds are located.

Published September 2011