WHAT SCHEME MEANS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 65, 17 March 1928, Page 10

WHAT SCHEME MEANS

TRANSPORT UNITY AT LAST STATION AND.CARAVANSERAI The announcement that tho Govenir ment will: itself carry out tho ; Tawa Flat deviation opens up a vista of greatly increased passenger and freight facilities for tho Port of Wellington. Tho complete combined scheme, which includes the new railway yard, in which willbc incorporated tho Thorndon sea wall and reclamation,' provides for a central railway station, liukod up with the ferry service; and both the. Wai-' rarapa( Main Trunk, and suburban lines, a shorter and easier graded exit to tho north, and a simplification of travel and saving of haulage and traffic handling costs which may be said to fully justify ' its estimated cost — £2,05.0,000. ...■■'. Tho Tawa Flat . doviution will bo approximately, seven miles long, and include two tunnels, ono of 2-f miles and the other of three-quarters of a mile— but it will be only !part of a big, overduo scheme, whiclr when- complete will probably havo cost £2,500,000. The railway yard is to cost £1,100,000 of this. The only part of this work which is% finished is the sea wall of tho Thorndon reclamation, which will bo incorporated in the new railway yard now being planned. The.cost of, the sea wall is set down as £200,000. The reclamation is estimated to cost £.200,000. This work'is well ahead, and should bo completed,' or nearing completion, in eighteen months. "Culverts, eec," are put down for £25,000 more. The estimated cost of tho station yard itself, which will embody tho gravity or '"hump" shunting methods which have been in voguo at tho Middleton yards .in Canterbury for, somo time, and which will otherwise bo thoroughly up to date if built in- time, is estimated at £650,----;000. These items; total £l-,075,000 iv the 1924' estimates; but in tho 1926 estimates tho figure, is £ 1,100,000. To this must be added^tho cost of the Tawa Flat deviation, which was estimated to be £950,000,- making tho total estimated cost £2,050,000. In such a largo scheme, which it may bo found riecossary:to amplify to socurc its fullbenefits, thero are bound to bo uriforoscon expenses; ■-■ For "instance, it will probably bo,, found that to tako full advantage of the easier grades afforded by the deviation, it will be nocessary for tho Public Works Department to consider tho improvement of the grades botwecn Tawa Flat and Paekakariki. There appears to bo on\f two alternatives—tunnelling and lengthening the ■routo to secure easier grades. Tunnelling is an expensive proposition, while lessoning tho grade by the other alternative appears to necessitate a lengthy coastal ■ deviation with an inevitable and undesirable proportion of curves. Other problems will doubtless present themselves, so that £2,500,000 is not an excessive estimate of tho ultimate probable cost.' ■ This seems a big sum of money, but the advantages Wellington will receive ■justify such expenditure. The complete scheme will give an outlet on an easy grade by rail to the fertile north, and will open up residential sites making possible northern suburbs within rea-. sonable distance of tho city, and seaside homes further, out for those who do not mind half an hour in the train. Whilo this may relievo to somo extent tho residential congestion in tho city, the, chief advantage of tho scheme lies in the linking-up for the' first time of port, freight, and passenger facilities in a connected scheme which will bo free of .the inconveniences- at present so freely-commented upon by visitors. . '■■■■■■ ■• ;'■ -; , ■■• i ..- . PROGRESS OF WORK. '■• The- first step taken in tho construction of tho track deviation was tho letting of the contract for the bottom heading on 24th August last to Messrs. Burnsido and Matthews, whose job it is to pierce and open up tho first and shorter tunnel.for subsequent completion. Thi3 has been undertaken first in order to provide a means of running the spoil by gravity from tho second and longer tunnel to the harbour, whero the portion of it which is not used in the ramp and sea wall along tho foreshore will assist in-surfacing the reclamation. . This short preliminary tunnel, which will be merely a rough excavation 19ft x 9ft, is expected to bo completed within nine months of commencement. The finished tunnels will be 19ft< high and 26ft across tho widest part, and, once the bottom tunnel is opened, all the work will bo carried on simultaneously; spoil from the northern end of the second tunnel coming in for the- track fillings which will be necessary on the Tawa Flat side. It was unfortunate that a wages dispute should have arisen soon after tho work on tho first tunnel commenced, thereby holding up progress rfor-some weeks, but as it occurred at the holiday season the time lost was reduced. ■„.'■■'■. Whilo there has been delay in starting tho , tunnels, it is satisfactory to note that the sea wall, for which Mr. ,C. F. Pulley was tho contractor, was Completed in a very ! reasonable time after commencement, and that the reclamation, which is being carried out by tho Wellington Harbour Board, is progressing according to schedule.- When that is comploted and surfaced, tho laying out of ttie new railway yard will bo possible. Five months ago the original depth of tho big pool enclosed by the wall—2s feet at the Kaiwarra'end and 11 feet towards tho cast—had boon reduced to 111. feet at one end and practically nil at tho other, where tho work of surfacing is proceeding as the crust hardens. At'the eastern end will bo placed the up-to-date goods. sheds of tho new yard, and the extra space available.by ' the reclamation will chablo: the instal-1

lation of a system of handling the yard's traffic which will, cut out a lot of wasted time ami givo improved access to the shipping. INTERESTING SIDE ISSUES. It was to be expected that altcrnativo routes for tho deviation to that selected by the Government should- have been proposed, but tho reply of the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department (Mr. F. W. Furkert) to the suggestions mado severely discounted thorn on- the grounds that lengthy widened extensions of the sea-wall wcro to bo deprecated as dangerous in the necessarily deeper water in stormy weather, and that longer tunnels "would provo more costly, insisting that any gain in grades which w.onld bo secured would bo lost in 1 the greater lengths traversed, while in ono instance expensive gr.tdo alterations would b3 necessary between Tawa Flat and Porirua. It is not likely that consideration of theso proposals in any way delayed Government action, or influenced it to any greater extent than did the motorists' objections to the presence of tho central pillar of the liutt road overbridge. Both themes, however, wcro productive of lively Press correspondence.