L.P.G. ‘reason for expressway’

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 6

L.P.G. ‘reason for expressway’

The proposed Avonside expressway will be needed to transport bulk supplies of liquefied petroleum gas, according to a Christchurch City Council traffic engineer, Mr M. L. Gadd. The alternative to having arterial roads such as an expressway would be to have heavy traffic running through residential areas, he told a public meeting on Monday evening. The meeting, organised by the Avonside-Woodham Expressway Association was also addressed by the Labour member of Parliament for Christchurch Central (Mr G. W. R. Palmer ; Dr K. P. Clements, a University of Canterbury sociologist; the City Council’s chief planner (Mr W. T. Williams; and Mr T. G. B. Armitage, a consultant engineer. , Mr Gadd said most people had not yet realised that there would be considerable :

growth in the use of L.P.G. and that the fuel could be transported only by road. The City Council wanted to encourage all heavy traffic, of which L.P.G. tankers were -the “most dangerous in the popular imagination,” to use a network of arterial roads. L.P.G. “symbolised” one of the reasons for the expressway. Mr Armitage said the expressway would be an unnecessary road in the wrong place. The "grossly adverse” environmental effects of the expressway would outweigh any benefits it might provide. The project had also not been justified by recent statistics. "Indeed, events suggest that this project is no longer necessary, and certainly not in this country,” said Mr Armitage. There was a viable alternative for the relief of traffic congestion in the area.