SCENIC ROAD CLOSED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 15

SCENIC ROAD CLOSED

SEALING IN HAND

MOUNT VICTORIA LOOK-OUT

Motorists haye been advised that the scenic road from the top of Constable Street and along the ridge of' Mount Victoria to Roseneath is temporarily closed on account of sealing work, this being one of the first surfacing works of the paving season. The macadam surface, said the City Engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke, is in good order, but as a considerably larger amount of traffic will use the road during the next two summers a sealing coat is donsidered advisable, not merely for driving comfort, but to minimise maintenance.

Work has been in hand for some time on a short length of roadway just below the signal station to give access to a look-out area to be formed almost below the wireless masts, from which a splendid view of the city and harbour Ls to be had. At present the lookout from the road is well to the south of the wireless knoll and at a lower elevation, and the better vantage point has been: reached only by climbing over the ridge. The new length of road will have at its hilltop end a turning circle and the look-out itself will be bounded by a low wall and will have on the concrete floor pointers Lo the main features of city, harbour, and suburbs.

The surface of the Houghton Bay Road, from Hornsey Road to Houghton Bay, will, also be surface-sealed. This road, like the Mount Victoria ridge length, will carry a good deal more sight-seeing traffic as a return road from the Marine Drive during the Exhibition.

More sealing work is to be done on the haunches of the Evans Bay Road in lengths which were paved to a width of 16 feet only some years ago, but this is only a small part of the work which it is hoped to carry out in the widening of the road over its full length. Plans have been prepared for the walling which will be necessary over the awkward length between the Union Company's buildings near the Patent Slip and Kio Bay, and there is every prospect that money will be available for this necessary work this year. PERMANENT SURFACING. The heavy paving programme will be commenced in earnest next month, Aotea and Waterloo Quays and the Brooklyn Road being the biggest single works. The paving machine which was delivered to the City Corporation a fortnight or so ago has been given a trial run at the Maranui depot and has come well up to what was expected of it, handling sheet asphalt work well. Preparation work in Waterloo Quay will be started almost at once and will entail a good deal of grading to fit the road camber, built up years ago, to present-day requirements. The surface will be of highest class formation, with a concrete foundation and a running surface of sheet asphalt. Negotiations between the City Council, Railway Department, and Harbour Board as to the securing of sufficient land on Aotea Quay to make possible a divided roadway are being continued, with, it is gathered, good prospects of a satisfactory agreement. If this is achieved it is proposed to continue the division of the roadway the full length of the. new waterfront roadway to Customhouse Quay and on again in Jervois Quay to Taranaki Street, and in the wider length of Taranaki Street to the Manners Street-Courtenay Place corner. However, the prosecution of that plan depends upon the agreement which can be made as to Aotea Quay.