WATERFRONT LINK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 851, 20 December 1929, Page 1

WATERFRONT LINK

FREEMAN’S BAY AND CITY START ON WESTERN SECTION The last pile of the eastern section of the viaduct to Freeman's Bay was driven this morning. x>Y this time next yea: it is exJ " > pected that the whole of the western section will he finished. Mr. D. Holderness, engineer to the Harbour Board, expects to make a start with the western section of the viaduct about the middle of- January and pile-driving will start some time in February. This means that the link between the City waterfront and Freeman’s Bay will soon be an established fact and if all goes according to plan . trains and vehicles will be running across the viaduct by this time in 1931.

The completion of the western section of the viaduct was authorised at the last meeting of the Harbour Be ard and no time is being lost in putting the programme into operation. It will mean, too, that no men will be dismissed and that there is well over a year’s work ahead of them. The viaduct will link Freeman’s Bay with Quay Street and remove the long journey to the bay, via Fanshawe Street and Victoria Street. Vehicles using the ferry to Noj thcote and Birkenhead will also find the journey from the City much quicker. By the middle of January the concreting of the eastern section of the viaduct will be finished. The filling is 69 per cent, completed. Twenty per cent, of permanent surfacing has been done. As soon as this is all finished and has been given a reasonable time to set the railway lilies, which will eventually run right across the harbour to Freeman’s Bay, will be laid down. It has been decided to put several railway sidings on the eastern section of the viaduct so that Prince’s Wharf can be worked more economically than at present. These sidings will enable tlie railway to shunt its trucks and wagons on the spot, without having to take them back to the railway yards to do so. This will mean that ships at Prince’s Wharf will be loaded and unloaded more expeditiously. The demolition of the old Albert Street Wharf is almost finished, as is also the old vehicular ferry landing. The small parts of them which have bsen left are for the sake of convenience. Sheds and other small wharves in the vicinity will also be removed and provision made for them on the viaduct itself or nearby.

The 50ft bridge which will join the two sections of the viaduct will not be started until after the western section has been finished. It is the intention of the engineer to start work from the Freeman’s Bay end of the western section and work eastward across the bay.