PUBLIC WORKS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18129, 19 July 1924, Page 12

PUBLIC WORKS.

AUCKLAND'S PROGRAMME. BIG EXPENDITURE INVOLVED. (SPECIAL TO "iHB PMSS.") AUCKLAND, July 18. A great programme of improvements is being carried out in Auckland. In November last loans for the City Council, totalling £710,000, were authorised .—£300,000 for waterworks, £280,000 for tramways, £120,000 for drainage, and £IO,OOO for a quarry—and, together with other loan authorities not yet exercised, the total is £826,000. The City Council at present has under consideration proposals for .completing the concrete roading programme at a cost of about £200,000, this being sufficient to concrete seven and a half miles, and to put into permanent order, with' bitumen or other durable material 58 miles of secondary streets at a cost of £460,000, the idea being to complete the work in four years. There is a further scheme to construct a bridge over the Archhill Gully, tho total cost of which will be between £25,000 and £35,000, and to build a road across Hobson Bay as part of the railway embankment at a cost of £200,000. Another important work is the paving of the great North road between the city boundary and Henderson with concrete to a width of 18 feet. The total cost will be £50,000 or £62,000, according to the route taken. The Arts buildings of the Auckland University College are well under way. They are to cost £131,000. For the War Memorial Museum a contract has just been' signed, the price being £ 183,000. A review of public undertakings in progress or about s to be started would not be complete without reference to Prince's Wharf, just completed by the Auckland Harbour Board. The total cost will be £600,000. A start has been made with the preliminary work in connexion with the construction of the new railwaj' station and goods yard at Auckland, and of the deviation via Hobson and Orakei Bays to Westfield. The work was recommended by Mr E. H. Hiley in 1914, and was estimated by him to cost £965,000, including £140,000 for a new engine depot and approach lines. No estimate has been given of the cost at present ..jates of wages and prices generally, but it will probably be £1,500,000. If the scheme is carried through in its entirety, Mr Hiley estimated that the work would take five years to complete, therefore in calculating the annual expenditure on railways in the province during the next few years, it will not be outside the mark to allow £300,000 a year for the next five years for the Auckland station and new outlet.