NEW RAILWAY STATION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29060, 24 November 1959, Page 14

NEW RAILWAY STATION

Completion Next

October

Last month marked the end of two years’ work on the new Christchurch railway station building. At the present rate of progress the project should be completed about this time next year, cutting the previously estimated time ' y about nine or ten months, according to the contractors, Mr W. A. Smith, general supervisor for P. Graham and Sons, Ltd., said yesterday that work was now being concentrated on the completion of steel work on the western end of the building. It was hoped to have this finished in about two weeks. Marble and terrazzo work in the interior of the building was also well established, and going ahead rapidly, said Mr Smith. All construction work would be finished together about next March, leaving only finishing work to be done on brick-work and plaster. Internal finishing would then follow.

One of the next stages of work on the interior of the building will be the laying of a seventeenfoot long map of the South Island on the floor of the ticket lobby. In green terrazzo, the map will contrast brightly with the surrounding floor of pink-fawn marble. It will show lakes in blue, main centres in red squares, and railway lines in black strip. Surrounding the sea coast will be various shades of blue.