IMPORTANT CITY IMPROVEMENTS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 191, 15 May 1928, Page 8

IMPORTANT CITY IMPROVEMENTS

AN 80-FOOT ADELAIDE ROAD

HISTORIC CORNER TO GO COUNCIL’S FAR-REACHING DECISIONS A series of reconunendadations by the Works Committee of the City Council which were adopted at the last meeting of the council provide for several streetwidening works of the greatest importance to the city.

Usually it is only by the expenditure of much money that city improvement schemes can be engaged upon, but there are ways and means of bettering the city bit by bit at a cost comparatively low when compared to the benefit of that improvement. The present chairman of the Works Committee of the City Council (Mr. H. D. Bennett) is well aware of that fact, and he, with the aid of his committee, is gradually effecting a vast improvement in respect to many city streets —by widening here, splaying back there, connecting up blind streets, and bringing others into an alignment that improves visibility.

These works very properly go hand in hand with street paving and surfacing, for the one improvement often suggests the other, just as both are suggested by the necessity of better road surfaces than those which satisfied our fathers and grandfathers in Wellington. Some Vital Decisions. Though some members of the council were possibly unaware of it, the decisions made by the council on the recommendation of the Works Committee at last meeting were very farreaching. Yet, curiously enough, no attempt was made to discuss any one of them—all being passed (all, save one) without any comment whatsoever. Yet the recommendations included the most important streetwidening schemes put before the council for some years. An 80ft. Adelaide Road. One decision, for example, was as follows '“That a building line bylaw be adopted to enable Adelaide Road from Luxford Street southwards to be - widened to 80ft., the widening to take place on the eastern side of the street.

In explanation of the magnitude ,of this proposal, it* should be explained that Adelaide Road “from Luxford Street southwards,” is mile in length, and is 49ft. 6in. in width. To make this arterial road 80ft. wide is almost to double its existing breadth, and when completed will form a really splendid boulevard extending from the vicinity of Athletic Park to the sea. Fortunately this project has been brought forward in good time,.as all along the eastern side of this road there is a good deal of unoccupied land (including a length of the Town Belt—one half of which is the municipal golf links), whilst the houses, with some exceptions, have been erected sufficiently far. back to allow the absorption of their front some time or other for the purpose of street-widening. It means the annexation of 30J feet depth from all properties on the eastern side between Luxford Street and the parade. Naturally this will be carried out by a very slow process, as it is not intended to treat the proposal as an urgent work, but to keep it going whenever new houses are erected on new land or reerected on old. It is something for the future—possibly not the very distant future, but certainly a great improvement in a highway that must always form one of Wellington’s most popular drives. Brougham Street, Too. But'Adelaide Road was not by any means the only road-widening project agreed to by the council. It also agreed to widen that section of Brougham Street traversed by the tramways. The recommendation agreed to was as follows :— That a building line, by-law be adopted to enable the portion of Brougham Street between Pirie Street and Elizabeth Street to be widened to 66ft. , the widening to take place on the western side of the street. Provision be made for a splay of 25ft. at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Brougham Street ‘Young Estate). This means widening tlie particular section of the street by 164 ft, and the setting back of the building line on the western (the city) side of the street by that much, land which slopes from a clay bank some 12ft. in height down to the level of the street. The decision of the council means that an order tantamount to a proclamation will be placed against the erection of buildings closer than 33ft. from the middle of the street when widened. Au Historic Comer. At one time—when the Imperial troops were quartered on Thorndon Flat and a pretentious hospital stood about where the Girls’ High School now stands —the corner of Pipitea and Mulgrave Streets was a busy corner. For over sixty years there has existed on the site a quaint old-fashioned little shop and dwelling—a real relic of the past—which is now to be resumed by the council (an area of about three perches) in order to bring about a better alignment between Mulgrave and Murphy Streets (which at present overlap and so cause bad visibility. Already the surveyors ot the city engineer's department hate been on the property, and it is expected that action will be taken to. resume it in the course of a few weeks. A Bad Corner.

The engineer is also being asked to furnish a report regarding the proposed widening at the corner of Riddiford and Constable Streets, a veiy busy and much too' narrow street junction in the heart of Newton n. Chaytor Street (on the way to Karori) has obvious claims to widening, and ways and means are being sought to carry out that work. l the ci tv valuer was instructed m that connection to ascertain the probable cost of the land needed for widening of Glenore btreet and Chaj toi Stl Ct A Wider Tinakori Road.

What will be of great interest to the people of Wellington North is the decision of the council instructing the city engineer to report on the approx - mate cost of widening Tinakori Road, one of Wellington’s oldest t,ior°uskfares, which has seen a big inciease in traffic during the last live years, due to increased settlement m M est ern Kelburn, Northland and Karori.