ROAD TUNNEL PLANS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 10

ROAD TUNNEL PLANS

Approval ByCounty

The preliminary plans and specifications for the proposed Christchurch-Lyttelton road tunnel were approved by a formal resolution passed at a special meeting of the Heathcote County Council yesterday. The council did not consider details relating to access from the tunnel mouth to Heathcote and other aspects affecting the county. The council will advise the Road Tunnel Authority that these matters would not be considered until the next phase of the planning had been reached. The authority’s attention will be drawn to the council’s proposals for a “clover leaf’’ access, which wil! enable traffic leaving the tunnel to travel to Heathcote without crossing the main road from the tipmel. * County’s Say Under the Road Tunnel Authority Act the county had some say in the construction of the tunnel and access to it from Heathcote, said the acting-chairman (QV R. A. Young). The present plans did not include details of the road system from Ferry road to the north portal-of the tunnel. This road would be constructed *by the National Roads Board. Access from the tunnel was an important matter for Heathcote, and the council had recommended that some form of “clover leaf” roadway be provided from the north end. “We want to avoid congestion where the turn-off road meets the main road from the tunnel and to ensure that traffic deviating from the main road does not cross the stream of traffic from the other direction?* Cr. Young said. “We have, suggested either a tunnel under the'access road or a roadway doubling back to the en : trance to the tunnel,” he said.