RESTRICTION LIFTED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30959, 15 January 1966, Page 1

RESTRICTION LIFTED

Motorway To Tunnel

A speed of 55 miles an hour is now legal for cars on the Christchurch-Lyttelton road tunnel motorway.

The tunnel and its access road had been removed by a notice printed recently in the New Zealand Gazette from the gazetting of the Heathcote county as a closely populated area, the general manager of the Christchurch-Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority (Mr L. H. Wilson) said yesterday. The authority was now free to enact its own by-laws for fixing speeds on the motorway and in the tunnel. It already had a by-law which fixed the speed through the tunnel between the toll plaza and the Lyttelton portal at 30 miles an hour. “In the absence of a by-law covering the approach road between Ferry road and the toll plaza the speed limit is governed by sections of the Traffic Regulations which provide for certain maximum speeds for different classes of vehicles,” he said. “For instance, in the case of a motor-car the maximum speed is 55 miles an hour. “The authority is taking immediate steps to replace the derestriction signs on the motorway which were previously in existence but which had to be removed because of a recent decision in the Magistrate's Court,” Mr Wilson said.