80-ACRE ROOF.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19567, 13 March 1929, Page 16

80-ACRE ROOF.

GREAT MELBOURNE PLAN.

£4,000,000 ADDED WEALTH.

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SYDNEY, February 21

For more than forty years, Mr J. A. Smith, the frainer of the city of Melbourne's building regulations, has been hammering away at a scheme for roofing the great railway yards at the railway centre of Flinders street. Now, with the offer of one . English and four Australian syndicates, he believes that there is a possibility of the work being undertaken, and that Melbourne is on the threshold of the most remarkable development in its civic history. The roofing of the railway yards would add 80 acres to Melbourne, ami the stwnsor of the scheme believes, and is prepared to prove that far f ro F} being a costly undertaking, it "would be carried out at a huge profit. lhe added area, he says, would show a proht of at least £625 a foot. Everyone agrees that the present site is an eyesore, although the area which surrounds it constitutes the finest environment within the metropolitan ansa. The natural conformation of the area mr.kes it possible to construct a platform over iheyards. Beneath the platform * all the functions of the metropolitan station, virtually underground and hidden, could be effectively conducted. Above the platform the area created by its construction could be added as an integral part to the most valuable portion of the city. It is explained that the_ roofing or the yards would make possible the extension of the roads and streets now abruptly terminated by the railway •yards, thus releasing traffic at present forced into the bottle neck of Swanston street formed by Prince s Bridge. At least three blocks could be added to the citv on the Flinders street frontage alone, with a total frontage exceeding 6000 feet, and of a valu© averaging more than £6OO a foot. Assuming that tbe platform was extended to the river road, an additional 2000 feet frontage would be obtained, with an "outlook upon the river and the Botanical Gardens. Where the well- 1 known Prince's Bridge stands, before the white man arrived, the aborigines crossed the river at a native ford._ At the same place the colonists established a punt, then a modern bridge, then a stone arch, and then the present steel bridge. To that centre all tbe main streets of the city and all traffic »venues converge Trams accentuate the congestion. The railways stations are adjacent to the bridge, and Melbourne thus became a city of arterial communications radiating from a common point—tbe old crossing place of the blacks. The value of the area now given up to minor railway purposes is declared t~> hp on f r-oiTSfrvative estimate worth £2,500,000. The estimated net profit on the portion of the roofing scheme is put down at more than £4,000,000. All the area to be covered if the scheme is carried out will not be required for railway purposes, and it is proposed to provide a great parkins: area for 20,000 motor-cars, a facility badly reeded with i"be great growth of motor traffic. There is a suggestion that the tops of the buildings to be erected on the platform could be transformed into aerodromes, but this is a matter that could be given attention later. It is a novel and ambitious scheme.