WIDER HUTT ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1938, Page 14

WIDER HUTT ROAD

ESSENTIAL WORK

DELAY IN MAJOR PLAN

ENGINEER'S PROPOSAL

! The City and Suburban Board spent ! some time today discussing the necessity of widening the Hutt Road pavement between Petone and Ngahauranga, for though the road and other roads controlled by the local board will ultimately be taken over by the Main Highways Board and the Hutt Road will be greatly improved as to width and banking on curves, legislation i necessary for the absorption of the local board has not yet been passed and the major work cannot be carried out by the summer of 1940. Members of the local highways board consider that something must be done at once. A special committee was set up to discuss with officers of the Public Works Department a scheme suggested by the City Engineer (Mr. K. E. Luke) for surface-sealing the macadam haunch on the sea side, possibly before the end of the year. Two reports were made by the Engineer. "The widening of the paved area of this length of the Hutt Road has, in my opinion, now become a matter of great urgency," stated Mr. Luke in his first report. "The necessity for this work is fur-ther accentuated by the roading development works in hand or proposed by the Public Works Department in the reconstruction of the Hay-wards-Pahautanui Road, which is almost completed, and the realignment and widening of the Western Hutt Road. This development work by the Government will certainly increase the traffic flow through the Hutt and Petone and via the Hutt Road, to Wellington."

In view of the proposals for the absorption of the roads controlled by the Suburban Highways Board by the Main Highways Board no action was then taken, but the legislation required to bring about the absorption of the Suburban Board by the Main Highways Board was not passed during the past session of Parliament and this meant that it.would not be possible to carry out the main widening work in time for the Centennial celebrations in 1940. The question therefore arose whether the Main Highways Board could be induced to carry out the improvements in anticipation of the absorption of the local board. EXTENT OF WORK PROPOSED. In his second report, Mr. Luke said that he had had a conference with officers of the Main. Highways Board on September 28 and had learned that j preliminary plans had been prepared for extensive widening work between Petone and Ngahauranga, entailing the j building up of super-elevation on all curves on the inner side and completely burying the present pavement, by as much as four or five feet at one point. Even were it possible to obtain assistance from the Main Highways Board to proceed with the work before that boaijd legally took over the local board's activities it would be impossible for the work to be completed before the .Centennial celebrations, and if it were commenced before then and were in progress during the Exhibition period serious inconvenience would follow during periods of unusually heavy traffic. Mr. Luke thought that as traffic de- j veloped with the opening of the Hay-wards-Pahautanui and Western Hutt Roads a tightening of control would be necessary, by moving slower traffic to the macadam haunches and by dividing the pavement by a traffic line, fast traffic being confined, to the defined lanes. Councillor W. Appleton, chairman of the. works.committee of the. City Council, said that everyone was agreed that the road had to be widened; it could not be left any longer. Conditions on the road would be impossible under Exhibition traffic unless it was taken in hand. ' ENGINEER'S SUGGESTION. Mr. Luke said that he had, since writing his second report, made visits to the road during peak traffic periods and he thought that there was pos- | sibly a temporary solution by treating the seaward macadam haunch. On the hill side a great deal of work would be done by the Public Works Department in banking on bends, and that could not now be carried out before the Exhibition period, but on the sea side less work would be required, and as the macadam was 15 to 16 feet in width surface sealing would give an effective roadway of about 40 feet.

He suggested that the board might appoint a committee to approach the Main Highways Board with the suggestion that it should grant some assistance towards that temporary work, which could be commenced in March or April of next year and could be completed before the winter; probably it would take two months to do the work, which would cost about £2500.

Councillor Appleton remarked that there w^as an unexpended loan balance which might be used temporarily.

Mr. E. Palliser (motorists' representative): I think that if it can be done it should be done this season. It is most important that the road should be properly lined.

There was only one point, at the one mile post, where the macadam should be banked to give safety oh the bend, he said. Mr. Luke replied that the Public Works Department had arranged to use spoil from the Ngahauranga Gorge at that point.

The general opinion of the board was that some form of widening is urgently necessary, and Messrs. Appleton, Palliser, and G. London were appointed a committee ij© approach the Public Works Department to discuss means whereby improvements could be financed without delay.

Mr. London mentioned that drivers of railway buses were showing fine consideration of other traffic by pulling on to the macadam to allow vehicles to pass, but there was a doubt in his mind whether their good intentions had good results in summer weather, for a terrific dust was lifted and other dangers might follow.