Roads Board’s Visit

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 8

Roads Board’s Visit

The National Roads Board’* discussions with the Christchurch City Council and the Riccarton and Lyttelton Borough Councils should have given its members a better understanding of the peculiar problems of roading in a widely spread, flat city, with poor foundations and the additional complication of a hill requiring a large tunnel. Two lessons can be drawn immediately from the discussions. The first is that experience continues to show how right the Sheat Committee was in its insistence that part at least of the roading subsidy to municipalities should be based on actual expenditure and not (as at present) • wholly on population. Riccarton, I for instance, would have no cause .for complaint if the National Roads j Act were amended to provide that

its subsidy did not depend on how many people lived in the borough but on how much the borough spent on its streets. The second, and probably more important, lesson is that in the planning of metropolitan road works, local authorities and the Ministry of Works (representing the National Roads Board) should act in close and continuous co-operation. The best of access highways will be of little value if the urban street connexions are not designed to cope with the traffic. The best method of achieving this co-operation is through the Regional Planning Authority, which is logically responsible. The huge sums quoted for roading costs cannot be spent economically unless a comprehensive plan is prepared, on the lines of the Auckland plan approved by the board. The money will have to be spent if traffic is to move efficiently and safely to. from, and within the urban area, but the expenditure will be smaller if the programme is wisely designed.