THE ALL-TRAFFIC TUNNEL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 13 November 1923, Page 8

THE ALL-TRAFFIC TUNNEL

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —"Should it be made wider"? appears to be the problem set the City Councillors and public generally, now that the "route" is apparently definitely settled. The "Evening Post" of Friday last reports the Mayor as saying that "it would be a great pity to spoil the tunnel if it should be made wider than as now planned." The' question is: Aeed it be made wider? Would it not be possible rather to discard the proposal to lay a double line through the new tunnel and instead lay only a, single track, which would take all the outward tram traffic from Hataitai, leaving the present tunnel to take- all the inward traffic to Hataitai, or vice versa? This would leave the road in the .new tunnel considerably wider for vehicular traffic and do away with the anomaly of three tram tracks running into one suburb, and emptying almost alongside of one another at the Hataitai end as was clenrly shown in the route plan o* the "Evening Post" of 29th September. I am only a novice in matters electrical, but if the above suggestion is feasible, I can see in it besides widening the track^ for vehicular traffic a very great saving in tram rails, track, and overhead gear, while it would obviate the necessity of the great additional expense of widening the tunnel.—l am etc., ' 12th November. • ' •

"Long Sight," whose letter was published in Saturday's issue, writes to explain that through the substitution of a "full stop" in place of a comma, and the making of a fresh sentence in the last but one paragraph, the sense has been somewhat altered. "What I wished to convey in my letter was: If the dip of the grade be "reversed, the highest point in this route would be only 120 feet above sea level, and over a length of approximately 2000 feet, with a grade of about 1 in 30, a drop of nearly 70 feet would be got, etc."