TUNNEL ROAD.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18074, 16 May 1924, Page 9

TUNNEL ROAD.

THE LATEST PROPOSAL. DEPARTMENTAL REPORT BEING PREPARED. The Public Works Department has considered the recent proposals made by Mr H. Hobday for the construction of a road and short tunnel to connect Christchurch with Lyttelton of sufficient importance to justify a report upon it by the Department's resident engineer, Mr F. Langbein. In view of his instructions to report to head office, Mr Langbein was not in a position to gratify the thirst for information shown by a representative of "The Press" who discussed the matter with him yesterday. Mr Langbein has not yet gone into the question of the estimated cost of the scheme as proposed by Mr Hobday, but he is inclined to think that it will cost considerably more than the £BO,OOO that has been mentioned. Nor is he much in favour of the route of the road connecting the Lyttelton end of the road tunnel with the existing street near the Anglican Church; an extension of the tunnel, he things, will be preferable.

Speaking generally, Mr. Langbein questioned whether, looking at the matter from the #ate of things existing at present, the benefits to be derived from the road and tunnel as outlined by Mr Hobday, taking also into consideration the expenditure involved, would bear comparison with the present road, via Sumner and Evans's Pass, and the improvement of the grade on the Sumner side by following, approximately, the line of road originally laid out by Captain Thomas for tne Canterbury Association. Looking at the question of better road communication between the city and the port from another, aspect, it is possible that a road and tunnel, as proposed a few years ago, without any grade, would be, in the long run, a cheaper proposition than the graded road and shorter tunnel proposed by Mr Hobday. The extra power required, to haul loads over the graded road would be a cdntinuing charge on all goods conveyed over it, and would have to be paid by the consumers of the goods. Mr Langbein informed the reporter chat he had not taken into consideration the possibility of tramway trackß being laid on the new road and through the new tunnel, but if it was intended to provide for tramway traffic the widt/i of the tunnel would have to be increased.