WESTERN ACCESS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 195, 14 May 1940, Page 9

WESTERN ACCESS

Heavy Retaining Wall To

Be Erected

DIVERSION OF TRAFFIC

The western short cut is proving an expensive highway. When the new road was cut out of the side of the hill that forms the northern boundary of the old Sydney Street cemetery it was thought that except, for a section of retaining wall necessary to hold up the upper end of Bowen Street, the cutting would hold itself, and so a suitable batter was preserved. But the heavy rains of last, winter indicated that if something were not done a good section of the cemetery would slip on Io tiie new road. Indeed, some of it did come away last year. It. was at. this same point that trouble started a fortnight ago following fairly heavy rain. 'The soft clay, overloaded with water, began to descend in the form of a slurry that spread a third of the way across the road. It was then realized that something had to be done quickly to prevent more trouble, and the city engineer’s department at once closed the southern side of the road, so that men and lorries could work in removing the slip and shaping the bank in preparation for wall-building.

Outward traffic to the western suburbs has been diverted to Hill Street, till such time as there is sufficient room for motor-vehicles to pass without interfering with the excavation work. The job entails the construction of a. heavy concrete wall extending right round the main bend of the road to a point near the old Sydney Street entrance to the cemetery. A toe wall will be brought out a little further than the present lower tip of the bank, and the wall will be built as high as the contour of the ground permits. The work of constructing double tramway tracks in Bowen Street is moving along swiftly. The excavation is down to a pohit opposite the Turnbull Library, and the rails are now being placed in position, prior to being welded together. Tn order not to interfere with traffic from Wellington Terrace that, part of Bowen Street at the end of The 'Terrace is being left intact for the present. As soon, however, as the adjacent section in lower Bowen Street is completed it will be allowed to take the traffic, while the connexion across the end of The Terraco is made.