BIGGER AND BIGGER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 10

BIGGER AND BIGGER

SYDNEY STREET CUT

HIGH AND LOW LEVELS

FUTURE TEAMWAY

No one of the city works of recent years has developed so surprisingly to most people as the widening and regrading of the length of Sydney street from Tinakori road to the gateway of the old cemetery, and the job is still growing. The estimated cost has been stated in a general way at £20,000, made up of part of tho larger unemployment relief work loan raised during the past winter, plus the Government subsidy. The whole job has so far been carried out with pick and shovel, but it is understood that now that the steam navvy has finished its digging in the Hataitai approach to the Mount Victoria tunnel it will be shifted to ■Sydney street, and presumably tho excavation will then proceed more rapidly, but there appears to be every likelihood that this relief work will continue right into the summer months, as did also the Glenmore street widening relief work. There is no question that the regraded road—it will be practically a brand new road —will be a great improvement - and a greater convenience to all classes .of traffic, but there is also no doubt •that the work is costing a great deal of money, so large an expenditure that it ; could scarcely be justified were the work intended to better conditions for motor or horse-drawn trafiie alone. That is not so, however, for Sydney street will eventually be a part of the shortened route to the western districts. For this reason the cut has been carried to a greater depth than would he called for otherwise, the road level now being about 50 feet below the top of the bank in the middle of the cutting, and the regrading has extended back to the very corner of the old cemetery, ■ giving a steady grade of about 1 in 18 over this full length to Tinakori road. That is a good deal easier than the climbs that are now made on several busy tramway routes, as, for instance, the 1 in 12 grade of the Brooklyn hill. STREETS TO BE SEPARATED. Another factor in increasing the size of the job is that when, some day, the shortened tram route goes through" from Bowen street there will be no connection between the two levels of Sydney street, i.e., between the low level length which runs on to a dead end and the main roadway through the cutting. For this reason the low level road has been continued, with a steeper grade—l in 9 in the stiffest pinch—to join the road at the city end of the cutting. "Were this connection not given, traffic from the low level length would have to run back to Bowen street to get on to the main road when it is eventually carried- via Upper Bowen street, behind the museum and through a corner of the cemetery to the new high level Sydney street. OTHER WORKS ON WESTERN ACCESS. A great deal of improvement work ' has been, done during' the last two or three years on the western access road, in the Glenmore street widening, on beyond the Karori tunnel by the partial filling- of the deep gully and widening in that fashion, and by heavy cutting back of the banks on the inner side of the road further on, to about the cemetery. Now the length between the Glenmore street widening and the horse-shoe bend is in hand. General straightening and widening are being dono together. On the northern side the high bank is being cut back at certain points, necessitating heavy concrete retaining walls, and on the other side section frontages are being set back. Certain of the property owners are anything but pleased with the loss of their' front, garden space or the amount; of'compensation which the council is prepared to give, but further on, towards tho viaduct, tho property owuers appear to bo satisfied with the proposals made for the levelling of their sections-in return for the loss of :the strip taken for widening. All 1 these widening' jobs are working in with one another, the material cut away irom banks being used for nllino- i n other parts. WHAT OF FINANCE? The joint schemo of the City Council and Government for the opening up of Qumton's Corner and the driving of a aew street at an angle from Lambton quay to Bowen street, at about the Turnbull Library, is to follow later, and the improved route to Karori and the western suburbs will then be well ahead, but will still bo blocked by the want of a connecting length between Bowen street and Sydney street. Just wSa.t the position in regard to this length is no one appears to be quite certain. The ratepayers turned down tiie idea of a tramway connection by this.short cut at the last election, but it was a tramway proposal only, and had nothing to do with road work, iven though tramway finance should be buoyant enough to provide for this track work it is not likely that it would be commenced in view of that adverse vote but.the fact that such great expenditure has been made on the western access—and the total must now be very greatn-will no doubt be used as - an argument for pushing on the last length of roadway, from Bowen street and through tho cemetery, whether by authority from the ratepayers means of another relief work loan by another extension of the power claimed by the council under street''widening legislation, a contribution from thl I 1 ram ways or -the Electricity Depart-! ment, or by a combination .of all of them.