WELLINGTON'S BARRIERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 47, 24 August 1923, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S BARRIERS

Wellington people will read witi satisfaction the reference in the lublic Works Statement to the necessity for improved lines of w^f Unication between the Port of Wellington and the districts upon the north-east and north-west which are served by the port. The Minister of Public Works classifies the Tawa Plat and Eimutaka deviations as two of three special undertakings upon which the expenditure of money should next be concentrated. He supports this recommendation by providing in the Estimates for a commencement of preparatory work. We recognise that this may not mean an immediate start, since other works must first be disposed of; but we hope that there will be no unnecessary delay when financial conditions permit the actual construction to begin. Especially we would urge most strongly that there shall be no route-battles. Every care must, of course, be taken to discover the best route ; but when a thorough investigation has been made and a decision given by the engineers, local interests must not be allowed to hold up operations. We are pleased to note that the Public Works Department has adopted the most" effective means of guarding against such obstruction by setting out in detail particulars of all the trial routes surveyed for the Rimutaka deviation. The Chief Engineer in his report deals exhaustively with the good and bad points of the various proposals and shows exactly why his choice has been made.

We cannot condense his review of the proposals into a short article, but we may briefly state the principal suggestions and the leading arguments applying to each. The proposals examined are as follow: (1) The Mungaroa-Cross Creek tunnel route of 5£ miles,' which is recommended, to be supplemented later by (2) deviation of four miles between Upper liutt and.Mungaroa, and (3) relocation of line between Cross Creek and Pigeon Bush to ease curves and gradients; (4) Tauherenikau route, 17' miles 67 chains from Mungaroa to Woodside, with lj miles tunnel.. This would be more expensive than (1) and would cut out Featherston;; (5) Wainui-: o-mata route, 30i miles, from Petone to Pigeon Bush, involving 4£: miles of tunnel, with grades noi better than (4) and a longer deviation; (6) coach-road route, Kaitoke to Woodside, would cost more than (4) and give no compensating advantages;- (7) Brockett's Creek route, 25 miles 20 chains,'! Lower Hutt to Pigeon Bush, via Taita, Stokes' Valley, Whiteman's ' Valley, Brockett's Creek, would involve 7 or 8 miles of tunnel and! heavy earthwork; (8) Gollan's'l Valley route, 56 mileß 20 chains, Lower Hutt to Carterton, via Rona Bay, Gollan's Valley, Orongorongo, and Maryborough, would involve 5j miles of tunnel, and heavy earthwork, without compensating advantages. The Engineer's choice appears to have been between: (l) Mungaroa-Cross Creek, supplemented later by (2) and (3) ; (4) Tauherenikau and (5) Wainui-o-mata. The objection to (4) is its cost and the fact that it would side-track Featherston. Wainui-o-mata is ,ruled out as a deviation, because it would be longer, with more tunnelling and .grades no better than Tauherenikau. Againßt these disadvantages it is noted that the Wainui-o-mata route would open up rich land inLower Wairarapa. As a new route to the Wairarapa beyond Featherston it is condemned.' It is a question of balancing the advantages of better access to the Wai--rarapa as a whole against special benefits to Lower Wairarapa, and the whole province has been deemed most important. We have no: spaoe here to consider the Engineer s statement concerning costs and savings; beyond saying this: he shows.that the deviation he, proposes would result in a saving to the Railway Department even without an increase in traffic. T*o this must be added the saving to, the community/in .time and trans-i port-damage, and increased production resulting from better communications.' From this increased production the ' Railway Depart- 'i ment would certainly derive a profit.