NEW RAILWAY STATION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 14

NEW RAILWAY STATION

* ARCHITECT’S VISIT TO CHRISTCHURCH PLANNING OF INTERIOR DETAILS DATE FOR TENDERS NOT YET FIXED The details of the interior plan- ‘ ning of the new railway station far Christchurch are rapidly being advanced to the stage when full specifications and quantities can be prepared by the architects as the final preliminary to the calling of tenders for the erection of the building. The internal arrangements in the new station were discussed with departmental officials in Christchurch by Mr Gray Young, of the Wellington firm of architects, Messrs Gray Young, Morton and Young, and Mr H. C. Lusty, supervising engineer for the New Zealand Railways. The date when work on the buildings will commence cannot be gives at this stage, because, in addition to the mass of details to be arranged and the compilation of the specifications and quantities for the contract, more than 90 sheets of structural drawings—both for steel and concrete —have to be- prepared.

New Design In interior finish of marble and bronze, the Christchurch station will . ■ be similar to the new Wellington building, for which Messrs Gray Young, Morton and Young were the architects. The western main ear trance will be at a position now occupied by the dock leading to the luggage department. The ticket lobby, which will be of nearly 5000 square feet, with a ceiling height of 30 feet, will also be used as a general waiting-room. This alteration from the Wellington design is more in keeping with the latest Continental and American station designs. However, a separate waiting-room for women will open off the lobby and an inquiry room, where tables for correspondence purposes be provided, will adjoin it. The new station, with its total frontage of 564 feet, will be situated, between the lines of Manchester street and Madras street. The threestorey section will start at the present luggage quarters and the wings will be of two-storeys. The building will reach nearly to Madras street, , where the. existing overhead footbridge .will be replaced by a more' modern structure. The tunnel under the platforms through which luggage vans from the western end of the station will be taken to the commodious luggage rooms at the eastern, end will have a width of nine! feet. Lifts attach end will handle ' several trucks at a time'. This method s: of handling luggage without inter-; fering with movement on the platforms has been made necessary through trains arriving at both ends of the station. District Office to Go Big changes will take place in the • railway property to the. east of Madras street. In the plan of the layout for the engineers, several new sidings will be provided and these will necessitate the demolition of the three-storeyed brick building in Moorhouse avenue, which has been occupied for many years by the District Traffic Manager’s and Engineer’s staffs. They will be accommo- : dated in the new station building^-. The fate of the more out-moded buildings to the west of the existing : main block and fronting Moorhouse avenue has still to be determined. It is probable that no scheme for their replacement wiD - be considered until the whole plan of lay-out involving the Colombo street crossing is under preparation. ~ The estimate for the complete work at the railway station arid yards was given by the Minister for Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), at the figure of £750,000, and he expected that the work would take three yean to complete. The keystone to the station replanning is the Walthc.-a yards, where * new sidings and two big sheds will - be constructed to compensate for' storage space which will be lost in ' the ultimate reconstruction in the station yard proper. The area between Waltham road and Wilson’s road, bordered by Mowbray street is being cleared, and the erection of the goods shed and repair depot will be started soon.