TRAM EXTENSIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 970, 13 May 1930, Page 11

TRAM EXTENSIONS

QUICK WORK BEING DONE KEEPING MEN EMPLOYED Most creditable progress has been made by the Transport Board's contractors and its own engineers and workmen with the tramway extensions now under construction. Reporting to the board this morning. the manager. Mr. A. E. Ford, said that on the Point Chevalier route 1!»*» chains of track and overhead out of 248 had been completed. The sub-station being built by the Power Board was nearly complete and some of the machinery was believed to be on the water. At Remuera. excavation had been finished for 72 chains out of 75 and rails and sleepers laid for 66 chains. “This extension will be opened for traffic on July s.’* said Mr. Ford. “Work will have to be found for men next week. It had been intended to transfer them to the new rail wav station loop, but the Railway Department's work is not sufficiently advanced to allow of our doing this. It is proposed to proceed with the Onehunga duplication as the only alternative to putting the men off. This will carry us to the beginning of July when it is hoped that the men will be able to start on the station loop.” Seven new tramcars had been put into service, the manager continued, four having been built by contractors and the others in the board's workshops. a MORE NEW TRAMS The board-in-committee has instructed the manager to lay down five new cars at the board’s workshops. Commenting on the employment of labour on the extensions. Mr. E. J. Phelan said the board should take time by the forelock and start the Richmond Road extension to keep the men in work. Mr. G. Bail don: The manager assures me that the men will not be put off. “We propose to get on with the Richmond Road and Mount Eden schemes as soon as we can,” Mr. Ford said. “That will be after the railwaystation loop.” The Richmond Road plans would be brought down in three weeks. Mr. E. Morton expressed the hope that Onehunga unemployed would be put on the duplication in that distric . “We have not a chance of putting another man on.” replied Mr. Ford. “We are employing all we can.”