HUNTER STREET

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 7

HUNTER STREET

QUESTION OF WIDENING FUTURE TRAFFIC MOVEMENT An old problem was mentioned again at the meeting of the City Council last night, the necessity or otherwise of •widening Hunter Street between Featherston Street and Customhouse Quay to 66ft, as was decided upon by the council some years ago.

The chairman of the works committee, Councillor W. Appleton, said,that in' view of the probability of the erection of a new building at the corner of Hunter and Featherston Streets a decision should be made. Already the street was 50ft wide, the same width as-Lambton Quay, and if parked cars were kept out of Hunter Street there would be ample room for traffic. The ; Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, said that no doubt" the Central Hotel site would carry a new- building soon, and •the ; National Mutual would be rebuilding later. The whple of the traffic from Lambton Quay and Featherston Street had to pass through the bottleneck at the Bank of New Zealand corner, and he thought that some means should be provided for turning traffic off before the bottleneck was reached. Councillor Appleton said he agreed, but he thought that the turn-off would occur further to the north. The opening of the new waterfront road whenthe Thorndon ramp was built would take a great deal of traffic from Featherston Street. . Still,' said Mr. Hislop, all the traffic Bound to and from Willis Street would have to pass the bank corner. Possibly a solution could be found by an amendment of the building line bylaw, taking 10ft from the building areas. ; " Councillor Appleton repeated that he .considered that there would be ample street room if the parked cars were moved away. Figures taken out some years ago had shown that the cost would be extremely high. Councillor M. F. Luckie said that the question was too big to have been brought down without warning. The whole thing had been very fully discussed previously, arid the decision was made in part in order that that length of Hunter Street should be given a width uniform with:the length between Customhouse Quay and Jervois Quay. He thought that thenew railway station would have the effect of sending a great deal more traffic through Featherston Street. Councillor Appleton agreed that the question should be given further consideration and accordingly it will be brought before the council again at .a later meeting.