NEW ROUTE TO THE WEST

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 10

NEW ROUTE TO THE WEST

Bowen Street Extension To Be Started Soon

Work on the proposed Bowen StreetSydney Street deviation, which will provide a more direct traffic route from Lambtou Quay to Northland and Karori, is to begin shortly, and will be finished before the Centennial celebrations begin. The last of the private houses ou the big block of land acquired by the Government between Bowen Street and Sydney Street will be vacated within a fortnight. The new short cut road will okirt Bolton Street cemetery and will curve right and then left again to join Sydney Street about 200 or 300 yards from the Museum Street cornel. Behind Broadcasting House a new street will run directly across from Mowbray Street to Sydney Street, joining it at right angles about 100 yards from the corner. It will give easy access to those properties which would otherwise be cut off from other than roundabout communication with the city. The present Museum Street will be closed io traffic. The whole block which will be cut off by the new highway is now either vacant or occupied by Government departments, with the exception of a single house. The tenant has been given notice to vacate this bouse by January 21. Between the Dominion Labortitory and the Native Laud Court: oilices, the, only/Government buildings on Sydney Street, stand the single occupied private: house and two empty ones. Beyond is another empty house and a number of vacant sections.

The sections on the hillside, below the cemetery, entered from the corner of Mowbray Street and Bowen Street, are now also owned by the Government. One of the bouses has already been demolished, the other Is occupied by a department of the State. There is therefore no obstacle to the progress of the scheme.

The reading operations which have been going on for some time on the edge of the Parliament House grounds, opposite the old museum, are for the purpose of widening the road to provide a temporary traffic route while the new one is under construction. Broadcasting House will front on Bowen Street, and will extend right across the pavement to Hie present roadway.

The purpose of the intersection leadnag across from Mowbray to Sydney Street is presumably to eliminate the need for Sydney Street residents to use the extremely awkward corner where the Bowen Street extension will join Sydney Street at an acute angle.