Rongotai Extensions

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 174, 20 April 1935, Page 11

Rongotai Extensions

Sir, —Mr. F. C. Bardsley, in drawing the attention of tlie Wellington City Council to the proposed filling in. of part of the foreshore at Lyall Bay tor extension of the airport, evidently knows more than the general public, if what he says is true: namely, the intention to erect a retaining wall. This would be a very foolish thing to do, facing as it does the full sweep of the southerly robers. Any necessary filling should be done without attempting to confine it by a wall. By the action of the water a new beach will be formed on which the rollers may expend their force m vain just as they do now on the sandy shore. I have in mind a concrete wall which was erected at big expense where the new waterfront road crossed a gulch, formed in the sandhills by probably many years of strong southerly winds; this wall opposite the southerly end o£ the airport is now entirely covered with sand and is doing no good whatever. The sand itse-t is doing the job ot holding the mighty ocean back. r ... If the filling is done as I suggest witaout attempting a wall, then Mr. Bardslev’s protest loses its point, as no interference will be made to bathing, as a ae w beach will form outside the line of filling. Ail additional advantage is that no delay need be caused to the engagement of labour, and the cost of the few thousand extra yards of Riling necessary to form the beach will be only a fraction of the tremendous cost of a wall. Ims filling should be started without delay, and permission given to deposit any solid rubbish such as brick rubble, etc., so that there will be ample time for settlement to take place before the roadway is reformed in the new ali^ maat i^, I x fl “^^ C ’’ Lyall Bay.