CONSTABLE STREET TRAMWAY EXTENSION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2358, 14 January 1915, Page 3

CONSTABLE STREET TRAMWAY EXTENSION

TO TRAVERSE CRAWFORD ROAD. A BIG. WORK. The extension of the t Constable Street tramline to South Kilbirnie—one of the earliest works to be proseoiited this year—is a work of considerable magnitude. ' The council decided, after a good deal of agitation, that the extension should follow Crawford R<jad rather than Wellington Road, which' was advocated in some quarters as the most direct route to link up with the Kilbirnie line on the eastern side ,of the hill. The Crawford Road line, though circuitous, will have a better grade and will serve a greater number of people than Wellington Road (which descends the hill rather abruptly from the top of Constable Street down to the bottom of the hill near the old Kilbirnie Hotel). The route of the new tramway section will therefore be via Crawford Road, as far as Childers Terrace, across the street, and traversing the western section of Seatoun Road, will junction with the existing line at the corner, of Bay and Seatoun Roads. The Order-in-Council has already been applied for, hut it is anticipated that authority will be given to 'proceed with the work before , the order is issued. The latter will occupy the attention of the Public Works Department for some little time yet, as every engineering detail has to be carefully gone into. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) states that the order for the material was given some little time ago. Going into detail the total length of the new section between the intersection of Coromandel Street in Constable Street, and the Bay Road will be chains. It will be a double track the whole distance'laid down in 951b. steel rails on concrete sleepers with a foundation of concrete. The grade is . all important, and it is fortunate that the route selected will call for no engineering work as far as that' phase of the work is concerned. The grade varies from one in 16J to ono in 35, averaging throughout about one in 19, which is a good working grade.

The laying down of the double tram track is not the only work involved. At present Crawford Road varies in width, from 17 to 19 feet. The City Engineer's plans provide for a 35ft. road and a 6ft. footpath—4lft. over all. As the road funs through the Town Belt for the greaiter part of the distance there will-be no occasion to resume land for road-widening except to take in tiny strips at two points. The work of widening the road will, however, be considerable, as there will be six walls to build—all on Crawford Road, One of these on the lower side of Crawford Road only a few chains from the crest of tho hill will be a stout reinforced concrete wall. The others will be gravity walls to sustain the banks. As the rails are not expected to arrivo here before May, it is not anticipated that the new section will be ready for traffic much before, the spring.