Smoke in tunnel

Press, 5 October 1984, Page 16

Smoke in tunnel

Sir,—Thick clouds of vilesmelling smoke from heavy vehicles in the Lyttelton tunnel have become intolerable. Transport board drivers and passengers agree that these concentrations are becoming worse, the result of rapidly increasing heavy traffic to and from the Lyttelton container terminal. Bus passengers sometimes hold handkerchiefs over their faces. Passengers with respiratory disease dread the otherwise enjoyable bus journey, because the tunnel fumes can set up paroxysms of asthma. Responsible sources close to the tunnel management say that extraction fans were not designed to handle the growing high level of fumes from heavy traffic and can no longer cope. Could the M.P. for Lyttelton, Mrs Hercus, please ask the appropriate authorities to get this tunnel smoke pollution cleared up? All tunnel users, as well as Lyttelton business interests keen to attract more custom to the port, would, no doubt, be grateful to her.—Yours, etc., JOHN DREW. September 27, 1984.

[Mrs Ann Hercus, M.P. for Lyttelton, replies: “I am informed that because the extraction fans are being painted, one by one, that there can be, as a consequence, a temporary ‘build up’ of fumes in the Lyttelton tunnel at present when traffic gets particularly heavy. I have noticed this myself, but this inconvenience is expected to be over shortly. Normally, however, when all the fans are operating, the tunnel staff is able to respond to a sudden or very heavy traffic density, by speeding up the complete ventilation system, and tunnel officers do very regular patrols of the tunnel as part of that monitoring process.”]