LIFTING OF TRAM LINES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27091, 14 July 1953, Page 10

LIFTING OF TRAM LINES

BUCKLEY’S ROAD A “ QUAGMIRE ”

REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL If Cashel street shows signs of developing into the same state as Buckley’s road after the removal of the tram rails, the Christchurch Transport Board will be asked by the City Council to stop the work until the weather is more suitable. The board has also been requested not to let any more tenders for the removal of tramlines during the winter months. “The contractors for the removal of tram rails (British Pavements, Ltd.), have now removed the rails from near Shortland road in Page's road to well into Cashel street. In Page’s road where the rails and sleepers were removed and a stabilised metal surface placed before the weather broke the road surface is in fair order,” the works committee reported to the council last evening.

“In Buckley’s road, it is a very different story. The road became thoroughly saturated before • the stabilised top was placed. This, in conjunction with the fact that the sub-base here is a particularly poor type of puggy clay has resulted in the centre of the road becoming just a quagmire. The concentration of traffic on the sides of the road at this time of the year has resulted in extensive failures of the remaining road surface in the neighbourhood of Bromley Park. It is practically impossible to repair these without closing the road. Very little can be done about the road until it dries cut and no great drying out of the road can be anticipated before August.” The question was discussed with the contractors who had no other solution to offer but had done their best by adding screenings. In the meantime they were carrying on along Cashel street where there was generally a better sub-base and, with only one line, more room for traffic.

Another complication in Buckley’s road was the Christchurch Drainage Board’s plans, said the report. Originally the board intended to replace the existing rising main under the centre of the road with a larger one. With the proposed pumping station in Page s road, the only work the board would do in Buckley’s road was to salvage one of the rising mains at some indefinite date after the Page’s road pumping station was in operation. It would be advisable to proceed with the reconstruction of Buckley’s road as soon as finance was available.