TUNNEL SITES
DISCUSSED BY AN ENGINEER ALTERNATIVES SUGGESTED •( An ensineer well versed in the com 1 nlcxities of Wellington's topography, iiu \ formed a Dominion reporter that a ] second tunnel through Mount Victoria was one of tho works that must incvit < nblv be included ill any schedule of un. ! dertakincs ahead of the city. The proV S lem was the point at which the hill should he entered to give a tunnel that ! would be of the greatest service to the ; whole of tho community on both sides i «f tiie hill, and most adaptible from an engineering point of view to tho various i classes of , traffic that would use it .Speaking lis an engineer, ho said that the the easiest grade to a tunnel site was up Elizabeth Street (from Kent Terrace) and by way of Queen Street and Rixon Grove to a point some 20 Or 30 feet below the level of the present tramwaj tunnel, with a route parallel !o it. That would mean that tho eastern (Hataitai) mouth of the tunnel would be in the cullv between the Hataitai estate nnd the Town Belt, and would give o slight upward crade eastward in tho tunnel- • With the. prospect of closo. settlement on J tho higher slopes of the Hataitai hill that route niiclit sLill, b& considered (owini; chiefly , to its easy approach on the city. side). Tho nprrowest part ot the range was nt a point in a line with ! tho old metal quarry at the top of Ellice Street., but the grade from Buckle Street the nuarry'\puts such a route but of court. \ , Another oossible route would be by cutting in by St. Mark's, across tho Wellington College groftnd, and entering the hill below the College observatoiy. i Tbnt route might mean a longer•,tun-' nel than one pierced from the quarry, but the grade on tho city side would bo quite an easy more than 1 in 24—and the outlet eastward would tap the centre of Kilbirnie, and not be out of the. way for traffic to Hataitai. Still another site-for. a tunnel could be reached by cutting in from Adelaide Eoad (opposite tho old tramcar shed site), and running into the hill at a point immediately,, to the south of Government House. Such a tunnel would bo even longer than one reached through the college grounds, but. it might bo inado the city terminal of a big arterial road through the centre of the city. In considering the question of a second tunnel it had (The Dominion informant remarked) to be remembered that wherever the tunnel was built it would have to provide a double track for trams, a traffic road, and a footway. Both the present tunnel lino and the Constable Street tracjk wero in pretty solid use, already coping with tho traffic to the eastorn suburbs, and before another ten years were over the new double track mentioned would also bo fully employed, as South' Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, and Miramnr were going to' form a very big. Greater Wellington. He thought the city authorities should look ahead to the time when tiie population east of Mount Victoria will be as great as it is on the western side.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 148, 18 March 1920, Page 8
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536TUNNEL SITES Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 148, 18 March 1920, Page 8
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