NOT DISCLOSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1055, 20 August 1930, Page 7

NOT DISCLOSED

INFORMATION CONCERNING TWO CANAL SCHEMES SPAN OF WHAU BRIDGE Inquiries from a, reliable source have been made from the Auckland Harbour Board for information regarding both the Tamaki and Whau canals. This information is now being collected by the board's engineer. This information was disclosed yesterday afternoon by Mr. M. H. Wynyard, chairman, at a meeting of the board, during a discussion on the span of the Whau Bridge. The board’s request for a 50ft span in the Whau Creek Bridge does not meet with the approval of Mr. A. M. Laing. At a meeting of the board yesterday it was reported that a letter had been received from the Minsiter of Marine stating that the local bodies concerned were quite unanimous in regard to the plan submitted which provided for a centre span with a 12ft 9in vertical clearance and a lateral clearance of 30ft, and that he did not feel justified in holding up the matter any further. The letter also stated that if the board considered that a 50ft lateral clearance should be provided, and it; was prepared to give an undertaking to pay the extra cost, he was agreeable to require that the central span should have that clearance. “REASONABLE REQUIREMENT” The board recommended that the Minister be informed that the board’s request for a length of span has been insistent since 1919. It was a reasonable requirement in view of the possible navigation requirements of the future. The board was not prepared to give an undertaking to pay the extra cost involved. Mr. Laing said he wished to voice his protest against the board insisting on a longer span on the grounds that the cost would fall on the local bodies, which could ill-afford to pay it. With the remote chances of a canal ever being excavated there the board should not insist on putting the cost on tho local bodies which were already loaded below the “water line.” Mr. T. Blood worth agreed with Mr. Laing, but he' pointed out that the board was not insisting on the increased span. The chairman explained that the whole question had ben threshed out on other occasions. He explained that In 1919, when the question of a bridge was first mooted, the board was asked by the Marine Department for its requirements, and had said that it desired a 50ft span. The board had always asked for this: it was no new condition. Mr. Wynyard stated that the board’s engineer, Mr. D. Holderness, had been preparing alternative particulars in connection with both the Tamaki and Whau Canal routes. Inquiries for these had come from a reliable source, but he was not in a position to disclose their identity. In any case it was the duty of tho board to provide, within reason, for the possibilities of such canals being built.