GLENORCHY ROAD QUESTION

Lake County Mail, Issue 26, 19 November 1947, Page 1

GLENORCHY ROAD QUESTION

MINISTER’S STATEMENT AT LEAST £200,000 INVOLVED Work on the Glenorchy road will not ho undertaken for,some time, according to the Minister of Works, Mr Semple. In a letter to this piewspaper, however, Mr Semple gave an assurance that as soon as the heavy burden of high priority work eased somewhat he would be glad to review the whole matter. “ Besides those representations made to me by 'other interests,” wrote Mr Semple, “ representations in favour of constructing this road have also been made by the Hon. Adam Hamilton and Mr T. L. Macdonald, M’s.P., and the Southland Regional Council. The difficulties of construction, however, are not so light as one would be led to believe and an engineer’s report in my possession shows that to construct this road to minimum standards, i.e. 20ft width roadways, 20ft width short bridges, but only 10ft width long bridges, would cost not less than £200,000 for the 29 miles involved. “ These standards, as you will perceive, do not nearly conform to present day standards for road widths. Nor would the work of construction be straightforward, as the first 12 miles from Queenstown would require quite a considerable amount of rock cutting, though admittedly the remainder of the length would not present the same difficulties.

I can assure you that T fully recognise that the community of Glenorchy having only steamer and launch communication, does suffer isolation. Unfortunately, many works which carry a higher priority rating than this project are heavily in arrears at the present time principally owing to the cessation of construction work during

the war years and it not be ])ossiblo to undertake work on this road for some time to come. Nevertheless, I have assured Mr Macdonald and T assure you that as soon as the heavy burden of high priority work ceases somewhat I shall be glad to review the whole matter.”