ACCESS TO CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 10

ACCESS TO CITY

GORGE ALTERNATIVES

SCHOOL ROAD APPROACH

When the Ngahauranga Gorge Road was first closed and the bulk of traffic to and from Wellington from the Main North Road was- turned into the Ngaio Gorge and Onslow Roads a warning was given motorists that extra-care should be taken at the junction of the Onslow and Hutt Roads. That warning is repeated, and in particular care must be taken during the weekends, for considerable delays and dangers have occurred on Sunday afternoons and special attention has had to.be given the junction by traffic officers. Cars which are coming down the Onslow Road have to pass through the line of Hutt-bound traffic to reach their correct side of the Hutt Road :or must turn through two lines of traffic if making for the Hutt Valley. Drivera~ on the Hutt Road will be Wise to keep an eye on speed when approaching the junction. ' The formal steps for the securing o* land and authority for the formation of the "School Road" approach- to the Ngaio Gorge Road, have been taken, but finance—about £8000—has stilt it is understood, to be arranged. „

"School Road" is a harrow righto*way which runs in from the Hutt Road a few chains south of the Ngaio. Gorge Road and at present carries trade traffic only. The proposal is to widen-the right-of-way and to extend it tojoin* the gorge road near the bulk petrol plant so that the-lower-length;-of. the gorge road, through the Kaiwarra settlement, can be made a one-Way length. This short length has been troublesome for years past, but all proposals for widening have been put oa one side on account, of the cost of acquiring and demolishing closed pack* ed properties. The way is comparatively clear for the formation of the School Road leg of the approach to th# gorge, if money can be found. Another bad point on the alternativee; to Ngahauranga Gorge has/been the one-car bridge at the foot of Boxhill, Khandallah^ but this is being remedied by the building of a second one-car bridge, paralleling the first, by. the Railway Department That is one up on divided roadways, for double bridges have not come into fashion ycst. It would not have been possible to \ have renewed the old bridge in thix» nor at so low a cost as is entailed in the construction of. a second bridgens* that fashion was not the main consideration. -

Not a great deal of use is being made yet of the Haywards-Pahautahui Road between the Hutt Valley and the west coast, but its advantages are being each week better realised and the volume of traffic on the Ngaio and Khandallah roads is.being appreciably reduced.