Redeveloping Motorway Area

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31071, 28 May 1966, Page 1

Redeveloping Motorway Area

A great opportunity for redevelopment presented itself to the City Council by the elimination of decadent buildings when the northern and southern motorways were constructed, the District Commissioner of Works (Mr D. B. Dallas) said yesterday, during the National Roads Board tour. Only 15 per cent of the property affected was good or valuable property, he said. The motorway plans were the best thing that could have happened to Christchurch, for the 85 per cent of decadent property would be bought and taken away for the city. No official estimates have been made as to the total amount of property destruc-

tion involved; but one estimate is that 370 houses will be affected by the northern motorway from Bealey avenue to the Waimairi county boundary, possibly another 200 between Bealey avenue and the motorway’s end at Waltham road, and up to 400 in the southern motorway from Waltham road to Sunnyside.

The board followed the line of the southern motorway from its junction with the Main South road at Hornby. Mr G. C. Suggate, design engineer at the Ministry of Works, explained the route in to the city and said that an optimistic date for completion was 1985 The motorway will lie east of the Main South road, passing between Templeton and Prebbleton, parallel to MeTeigues road, cross Annex road just west of Sunnyside, run diagonally across the front land at Addington raceway and cross Lincoln road near Moule street.

The line then runs across the Jerrold street reserve, across Selwyn street and down the line of Burke street, with major feed-off points at Antigua, Montreal and Madras streets but none at Colombo street, and down Wordsworth street to terminate at Waltham road.

Here, said Mr Suggate, would be a road leading off to Lyttelton, and the junction with the northern motorway, which would come in on the line of Barbadoes street. The Technical Institute knew that its buildings would be affected. Barbadoes street property owners were aware of the proposals, but not in detail. The centre line of the motorway would be between Madras and Barbadoes street, the' Fendalton-Avonside route crossing at Salisbury street. North of Bealey avenue, it was likely that the line would be to the east of Madras street. Further discussions had to

be held between the City Council and the Regional Planning Authority as to centre lines, but proposals should be put to the National Roads Board later this year. North of Westminster street, the motorway would pass through a newer residential area. Innes road would be a major distributor road.

The Main North Road, now widened at Styx, would have to be widened between there and the Belfast hotel, because a four-lane motorway could not end on a two-lane highway. The motorway itself would link with the major route Into the city between Belfast and Chaneys. There will be seven miles of motorway in the urban part of the city, and a mile in the rural zone. The cost of the proposals is estimated at £l6 million, of which £400,000 will be the cost from the Waimairi county boundary to Bealey avenue.