Suggested Overbridge To Be Further Investigated

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29830, 24 May 1962, Page 6

Suggested Overbridge To Be Further Investigated

The suggestion for a railway overbridge at Hornby will be investigated further by the Minister of Works (Mr Goosman). Mr Goosman said this after he and the Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine) had received a deputation from Hornby interests which opposed the building of an overbridge. The chairman of the Paparua County Council (Mr J. H. Weaver) said the deputation was seeking clarification of the issue. There was no stated intention of building an overbridge, said Mr Goosman. There was only a suggestion that provision for one should be made in town planning The District Commissioner of Works (Mr E. C. Smart) said he was concerned to see clear traffic on the State highway. “The council and people of Hornby view with great concern the possibility of an overbridge being established in the middle of the Hornby commercial centre,” said Mr Weaver.

“Not only would such a bridge and its approaches prove tremendously detrimental to the present considerable shopping area which adjoins the railway line on both sides, but such a construction would make impracticable any future commercial development in this locality.” Mr Weaver said that the Hornby, Southbridge and Little River lines were now being used only for industrial shunting. There was no longer any need for an overbridge from the railway point of view, he said. There were now lights and barriers.

“I believe that Hornby would become to Christchurch what Hutt is to Wellington,” said the chairman of the Hornby County Town Committee (Mr H. W. Bennett).

The industrial and residential areas in Hornby were well said Mr Bennett. But the area had been slow to develop because the bridge was always a possibility