HUTT AND COAST ROADS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 33, 7 August 1936, Page 8

HUTT AND COAST ROADS

Two notable road improvement works on the outskirts of Wei lington are the Western Hutt Road and the Paremata-Plimmerton-Paekaka-riki project to cut out Pahautanui and the Paekakariki Hill. The former, and part of the latter, were initiated under the late Government; the second half (Plimmerton-Pae-kakariki) has now been authorised by the present Government. When the Western Hutt Road is complete, it will be possible to make the trip Wellington-Upper Hutt-Wairarapa with one crossing of the Hutt River and without negotiating the floodable eastern bank of the Hutt in and near the Taita Gorge; if the Western Hutt Road project were extended Welling-ton-ward by means of a (vest-of-rail-way road between the Wellington Woollen factory and Lower. Hutt railway station, a motor vehicle could then go from Wellington to Featherston with only one railway crossing. These road advantages are obvious, and so are those of the bridge and road route between Parcmata and Plimmciton and thence on

to Paekakariki. The rocky coast of Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki lias daunted other Ministers of Public Works, but not Mr. Scmplc. Thus the old dream of a low-level highway from Plimmerton to Paekakariki, enhancing the value of the new Paremata Bridge, comes near reality. Admittedly, the effect on the west coast, as in the. Hutt Valley, is to bring the road still closer into parallel with the railway. There is a feeling that though the railway may have to go, the road' will go on for ever. But the powers that be'are not asking themselves awkward questions about road and rail rivalry. Public spending is as the rain, and falls on rails and roads alike. In the cases under review, it falls for intelligible purposes.