WATERFRONT ROAD

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22717, 23 May 1939, Page 9

WATERFRONT ROAD

SURVEY AT GOVERNOR’S BAY

NO DECISION YET BY BOARD

Subject of many complaints in the correspondence columns of “The Press,” the projected waterfront road at Governor's Bay is still no more than projected, according to the district engineer to the Public Works Department, Mr F. Langbein. “The public can rest assured,” he told a reporter of “The Press” yesterday, “that nothing will be done until the Main Highways Board has carefully considered the matter and given a decision.

“The work that has been carried out so far is only a preliminary survey,” said Mr Langbcin. “However, representations have been made to me on several occasions by the secretary to the Automobile Association and other motorists, with a view to adopting the waterfront road instead of the present road on the slopes of the hills. Elimination of the difficult bends and improvements of the existing highway to modern requirements of curvature is a very difficult matter—perhaps much more so than the layman imagines. It is with the object of securing a better route for the highway that the survey has been carried out.” The waterfront road from Lyttelton is now sealed as far as Governor's Bay, and the suggestion has been made that many motorists would use this route to Teddington and Gebbie’s Pass if the sealing was carried on. Better grades and curves are necessary, however, before the road can be brought up to the required standard. That these roads round the harbour and along the hills will be used more and more in the future is indicated bv traffic tallies taken, recently, Mr Langbein said. On a recent Sunday—well on in the winter —a tally taken at the Sign of the Kiwi showed that 578 vehicles went over Dyer’s Pass to Governor s Bay, 518 went toward Gebbie’s Pass, via the Summit road, and 582 went toward Evans Pass in the opposite direction. Of the vehicles which go to Gebbie’s Pass, about half return to Christchurch by way of Motukarara and about half by way of Governor’s Bay.