Last meeting sets records

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 6

Last meeting sets records

Two records were broken at the final meeting of the Christchurch-Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority yesterday, when the authority had its longest in-committee session, and its shortest open meeting in its 15-year history. The open meeting took about 10 minutes, including the taking of a photograph.

The atmosphere for the final meeting was also different, mainly because paintings and photographs had gone from the walls. Official reports, described by the authority’s general manager (Mr L. E. Olliver) as now “for record purposes onlv” showed an increase of traffic in February of 6 per cent compared with a 6.7 per

cent decrease in February last year. The 11 months of this financial year recorded 4.1 per cent more traffic than the corresponding 11 months in 1977-78. Increased toll charges were reflected during February in higher revenue (up 96.5 per cent) a rise from $36,551 in February, 1978, to $71,809 this year. For the 11 months of this year tolls have increased $209,652 (41.6 per cent) on last year or $627 a day. At the end. of February, almost 23M vehicles had passed through the toll lanes in the 5380 days since they were opened, giving an ■ average daily total of more ■ than 4000 vehicles.