The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1954. The Tunnel Road

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 10

The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1954. The Tunnel Road

The impressive unanimity upon the need for a tunnel road and upon its urgency, expressed in a resolution passed yesterday by the Tunnel Road Promotion Committee, is to be welcomed. The committee should be given whole-hearted support by the community in the course it has adopted, even by those who (like “ The Press ”) feel that the committee has been too hasty in accepting local financial responsibility for a work that has the strongest claims to be regarded as a national work and paid for out of the national roading funds. The Tunnel Road Promotion Committee, apparently, believes that its way is the one that offers the best hope of an early start and the quick conjpletion of a work that should no longer be delayed. Something may be said for this point of view. The Government can be expected to “ jump at the chance ” of passing financial responsibility to local interests, especially as it has admitted the need for the tunnel road (once the Lyttelton wharves are opened more generally to road transport) and has acknowledged its obligation to help. The Tunnel Road Promotion Committee, or the authority which is proposed to be constituted by legislation next year, will not, of course, abate any of the just claims of the province upon the central government; and if it is as successful as may be hoped, it may yet be possible to open the road | without the impediment of tollgates. Much will depend upon the [view that the National Roads Board i can be persuaded to take. The board will certainly be glad to be relieved of the responsibility of maintaining the long, steep, and winding Evans pass road in condition to carry heavy and continuous traffic. In time it might well have come to lie conclusion that the tunnel roc is justified by the same

economic considerations which led the Main Highways Board in 1940 to say of the State highway which it built at very considerable cost as a new northern outlet from Wellington:

The net result of these works may be summansed as greatly increased «oSL. Cap . aC^ y u and saf ety on these « H - S ofktßkway, together with a w?? 8 . 0 ? v ?. nules in distance and n ■■ • • Takin e into conMderation the density of traffic and the of these works, the economies of the improvements require no comment.

“ The Press ” has quoted this paragraph before; and it makes no ■ apology for doing so again. The close parallel between the Wel-lington-Paekakariki highway and the Lyttelton tunnel should be kept clearly in view when the time comes to discuss the financial arrangements. Nevertheless, Canterbury residents may well take the view that it is worth paying something to be assured of reasonable expedition in carrying out the work instead of having to wait upon the favour of the central government and the National Roads Board, and perhaps the convenience of the Lyttelton Harbour Board. The early completion of the tunnel, indeed, might be expected to infuse mto the Harbour Board’s modernisation plan for the port a sense of urgency which has hitherto been notably—and regrettably—lacking