BIG IMPROVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 11

BIG IMPROVEMENT

SUTHERLAND ROAD

MAIN WORK FINISHED

Though the face of the heavy fill at Sutherland Road, seen from Queen's Drive, is anything but scenic, there is no question of the great improvement of Sutherland Road, the one roadway between Lyall Bay and Melrose, and of Carlton Street, so that the southerly rainstorm that hit Lyall Bay about eighteen months ago and washed these two roadways out. has brought some good results.

The estimated cost of realising the washed-out lengths of Sutherland Road and Carlton Street was £3000, but the work in its final form may run higher than that by a' few hundred pounds; still, it will be an inexpensive work, considering its size and the improvement made.

Before the December storm forced action Sutherland Road, a poor main access in its best sections, was dangerously steep and narrow where Carlton Street joined in, on a bad angle, and Carlton Street at its upper end faded into an unformed footpath. Now Sutherland Road turns with an easy sweep and Carlton Street takes cars and trade vehicles up to the last section.

The crossfall on the new work is in towards the hill, so that a repetition of the damage caused by overrunning flood water is hardly possible. Both surfaces have still to be sealed and some minor widening and cleaning up have to be done.

The face above Queen's Drive is very much in the rough, but has not been cut back to an even slope because the spoil has not yet firmly settled. Some trouble is still caused by sludge and muck washed down by heavy rains, but this is to be held by cutting the face to an even slope and planting it. Path access is to be given from Queen's Drive to the junction of the two roadways. At this junction also an island, raised above the road level, is to be given a scaled surface and a few seats to make an outlook over Lyall Bay,

Surplus spoil from the excavation has been spread on what was a useless patch of sand and lupin on the drive towards the Maranui depot. Soil brought from another road improvement work, at Island Bay, is being used as top dressing, and this . new area should be by next summer a pleasant roadside rest park.

The catch about this improvement Avork is that it has shown up by comparison just how unsatisfactory the rest of Sutherland Road is, and it will lead to demands for a continuation of improvement uphill and downhill from the new length. Far more than £3000 would be involved in that.