A BUSY YEAR

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 100, 22 January 1926, Page 8

A BUSY YEAR

HEAVY TRAMWAYS WORK

OPERATIONS REVIEWED The year just ended has been unusually busy in the tramways department of the Wellington city corporation. One of the features during the last half-year has been the development of the motor-bus competition, and the steps the department has been compelled to take in order to protect the interests of the citizens in their ownership of the major system. Good roads were a necessity, in view of the everincreasing motor traffic, but they have made motor-bus competition possible. The buses, however, came, and they have had to be countered by corporation bus services on some of the koutes served by electric tramways, at a considerable cost to the department. The section of the roads occupied by the tramways—to a width of nearly 20 feet in some cases—-have to be maintained at the cost of the department, a section which is used whenever possible by the motor-buses, which do not contribute towards the expenditure. Apart from the motor-bus development, the year has been strenuous for the department in respect to track work generally. One new section was added to the svstem in the continuation of the Wallace Street line on to John Street and Adelaide Itoad, which gives an alternative route from the city to the southern subutbs. This work necessitated a heavy cut in the rise towards the southern end of Wallace Street, with a good deal pf concrete walling to support the banks of the new cutting, and also brought about the regrading of John Street. Apart from serving a new district, the new section has made it easier for the department from a traffic point of view. Another big work completed early last year was the regrading and retracking of Thorndon Quay, which, with the permanent surflice applied, has transformed that thoroughfare a dust-blown avenue to an up-to-date city street, and had led to a general brightening up of that part of the city. In Kent Terrace an improvement followed the construction of a new siding within the confines of the reserve, at its northern extremity. Here again the tramways department was responsible for the whole of the work of setting out the reserve in flower beds and grass plots on the northern side of the Queen Victoria statue.

New Tracks at Oriental Bay. Perhaps the most expensive of the works, next to .the Wallace Street section, has been the re-tracking of the Clyde Quay-Oriental Bay section. On account of the council’s decision to permanently pave the whole of those streets, the work developed into more than a simple renewal of the tram rails. New levels were taken to secure the desirable low camber for a bituminous road, SO that the work practically amounted to the construction, of new tracks altogether—double tracks, with tlie exception of a few chains length in Clyde Quay, and beyond Hay Street, on Oriental Parade.

Track Duplication. A good deal of track duplication was carried out during the year. As Wellington has grown and the demand for tramway transport has increased, the inconvenience of having to maintain adequate services (with single track lines has become apparent to the traffic officers, and duplication has liad to be resorted to in many places. This work has been carried out at Kilbirnie Crescent (alongside the Kilbirnie Recreation Ground) and at Onepu Road, so that there is now a double track from Lambton Quay to Lvall Bav (via Kilbirnie), with the exception of the tunnel section, and a couple of chains of track at the foot of Wellington Road. Track Stabilisation. A jjreat deal of track stabilisation and duplication has also been done in Crawford Road. The track was laid down in 1916, and was not carried out according to the best practice, with the result that the foundations became faulty through the combined action of water impregnation and traffic vibration. It was found necessary here to re-bed the whole of the track and to burv the rails completely in a solution of Neuchatel asphalt in order to keep the steel rails as free as possible from deterioration by the action of water. Mr. M. Cable (tramways manager) states that there are several other places on the system—some of them in the wood-blocked area—where rebedding is an absolute necessity, and a special night gang is now employed in this work of stabilisation. The Work Ahead. Mr. Cable stated that .a substantial section of the Constable Street tracks will'have to be attended to during the current veav, in the same way as those of Crawford Road. It is also proposed to duplicate the tracks and improve the lay of the tracks on a somewhat dangerous corner on the Karqri Road, at a point where more than one accident has occurred in the past. _ It is also proposed to duplicate the line through the Seatoun tunnel, which was constructed wide enough Ho make this work a simple matter. The bigger works include the laying down of a new section of tramways from Hunter Street to Clyde Quay, via Wakefield Street. No preparations have been made for commencing this work immediatelv, but it is possible that it may be started during the first quarter and finished by the end of the year. The other big work which faces the department is the short cut Hue between Lambton Quay and linakori Road. The present inclination on the part of the authorities is to construct this line up Charlotte Street and Hill Street, but as there arc still differences of opinion as to the route, the matter will probablv have another airing in the City Council before finality is reached. As to the old lilies that will probably be renewed during the year, there are the Upper Willis Street tracks, which as among the original lines laid down in 1905, are showing the wearing effect of time and traffic. Any review of the year concerning tramway tracks or works allied to them would lie incomplete without a reference to the much-griticised Northland tunnel, which has been financed bv the tramways department, but which will be repaid'as soon as the loan (of 1920) for the Raroa Road tramway is floated.