WELLINGTON LOADING RENAISSANCE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

WELLINGTON LOADING RENAISSANCE

1938 Year Of Achievement

IMPORTANT WORKS IN AND ABOUT CITY

After reiuaiiiiiig iiliiiost static for a long time, rouding activities in ami about Wellington became somewhat miraculously animated during I lie year just ended. Not only has llie work done given employment to many, but it lias also conferred lusting benefits upon the city ami suiroiimling district. For this sudden spur; Wellington has to thank, in the first instance, the Government for the energy which Ims been put into the improvement and formation .of neighbouring highways, and, in the city proper, the coining centennial celebrations which are stimulating achievement in many directions in a city generally regarded as eon serva five.

Biggest ami most expensive, yet work that is probably to confer most benefit to the greatest number of people, is the construction of the new highway between L’limmerton aud Paekakariki. via I’ukerua, cutting out the Paekakariki hill. This road, which is to cling inure or less to the coast, is to reduce the bight to be climbed roughly from 850 ft. to about 230 ft above sea level, which will mean an enormous saving in time and energy to the thousands of motorists who traverse that section of the country in and out of Wellington. The alternative to the hill road was a low-level highway via I’ukerua, and round the coast to Paekakariki. This work is not a simple one and for some distance round the coast there is a call for strong protective concrete work for the highway of the- future. It was hoped at one time that the new highway would be ready by the end of the present year, in time for the Centennial Exhibition, but the present estimated time of its completion is not quite so optimistic. In Ngahauranga Gorge.

In uniformity with that vast improvement to the great west coast road is the titanic work now being carried on in the Ngahauranga Gorge. The purpose of this is to eliminate the tortuous character of the present road, improve and unify grades, and make the road safer for those who use it. The chief task has been to cut out altogether a large half-circle of the old road in the lower half, by hacking out a short-cut through a hill of solid rock with the aid of huge and enormously powerful bulldozers. These machines have already cleaved a rough pathway through the hill, but many months will elapse before the new highway on new levels will be restored.

Two other major Government main highway works have been accomplished, or practically so, in the last year or two. One is the re-routing and

formation of the Hay wards-Pahau-tanui road, an allernative entrance to Wellington from the Great North Road. This new road adheres approximately to the old road line, but in several places departs from it altogether in favour of better grades and straighter runs. This road is almost completed. The greater part of if has been sealed, ami the rest lias a good surface. With the growth of settlement in the Hutt Valley this road is now the access route of a great number of motorists to the west coast. Allied to Illis work —for a distance at all events —is the new western road which is to traverse the Hutt Valley from I‘etone to' Silvei'.stream. This road lias been widened out and <in--fneed. It now extends past the railway bridge, along the base of a beau-tifully-bushed bluff, to the modern new concrete bridge which spans the Hutt River a quarter of a mile beyond the railway bridge. The approaches to the bridge" are now being built, ami. according to a recent Ministerial statement. the now road ami bridge may laready to take the race trallie to Trent--Imm this month. Improvenieiits in City.

In the city itself the year lias been none the less remarkable for the amount of road work done. Probably (lie most imjKirtant was the construction of the new ramp in Kaiwarra and Hie formal ion of Aotea Quay, which provides Wellington with a new front entrance. For many years it has been apparent that something of the kind should be done. Thorndon Quay was too confined and congested a thoroughfare, with its cross traffic to the wool stores and factories which line each side, for a dignified ipain entrance to the Empire City. For many years the difficulty of bridging the several railway tracks was. from an economic point of view, a drawback to the desired result but eventually, with the assistance of the Railways Department and the harbour board, the city has been furnished with a splendid bifurcated ramp and a fine broad highway across the newest reclaimed laud. Aotea Quay, a third of a mile long, runs across this area in a straight line, connecting up with Waterloo Quay opposite what was formerly known as Pipitea Point. Road and ramp were opened to traffic last month. When both the approaches to the graded ways and the road are paved—so far, both have been only lightly sealed —Wellington’s new entrance will be complete. Routes to Exhibition. Most of the other new works carried out in the city during last year are those concerned in the provision of better or additional access ways to the centennial exhibition in Rongotai. In some instances, these are pretentious works. Chief among them is the construction of the new causeway across the harbour in front of the Kilbirnie Recreation Ground, giving direct access from the Evans Bay Road to Kilbirnie South and cutting out Kilbirnie Crescent. This road was completed and temporarily sealed three months ago. It should be ready for paving some time' this year. Supplementary to it is the widening of the Evans Bay Road northward from the causeway. Here

is was necessary to move the boatsheds that lined the shore further 'out into the bay. Most of that work has been done, giving an extra breadth of from 12 .to 25 feet, for a wider road and footpath. Further work is to be done on this road this year, notably on that narrow section between the Union Steam Ship Company’s laundry and Kio Point, where a wider road, necessitates the construction of a stout, reinforced concrete seawall. The extension of Ruahine Street has proved rather troublesome during a very wet year. There is still a good deal of work to be done here before it will be ready for paving. This road is to be an alternative road to the exhibition.

Other road improvements directly due to the exhibition will be the construction of a new bypass across the south-western corner of Evans Bay; the widening out of Kingsford-Smith Street (the main approach to the exhibition), and the widening and surfacing of the Lyall Bay Parade. Notable work, too, has been done during the' year in road surfacing. Among the roads made dust-proof dm ing the last few months is the Massej Road (right round to Karaka Bay), the Alexandra Road along the Mt. Vie torla ridge, and Palliser Road.