For Fiji Group

£450,000 Worth of Roads For Fiji Group

A SPECIAL committee set up in Fiji J\ some time ago to study the road re quirements of the Colony, have sub mitted their report. They recommend that 21 new roads, with a total length of 230 miles be constructed.

Although the roads are still in the blue print stage when they are constructed they wifi open up new Y land give

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communication services to thousands of vi™nnn he Col ° n y’ s Development Plan, £570,000 was allotted for new road con struction. Of this £120,000 has already been set aside for work already done or in progress and for the purchase of road making machinery, leaving £450,000 for the 230 miles of new roads and 151 addi tional preliminary surveys now recom mended by the Committee. If the whole fund is used the 230 miles of road will cost something like £2 000 per mile, which certainly appears adequate.

The Committee was of the opinion that the greatest need for roads was in the Northern District, particularly Vanua Levu, therefore 137 of the 230 miles will be allotted to this district. The Western District will get 46 miles (30 of them in

the sigatoka Valley) and the Southern District miles The committee recommended that alignments, grading and drainage of all new roads should be of a good standard.

They agreed that to begin with it might necessary to save money by reducing the width, lowering the standard of sur facing, and providing river crossings in stead of bridges on roads on which the density of traffic was not high. They in sistod that the basic location must, how ever, allow for future widening and im provements when required.

The Committee considered that new alignments should, wherever possible, avoid or by-pass Fijian villages in order to avoid the dust nuisance.