MODEL HIGHWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1938, Page 10

MODEL HIGHWAY

CITT-PAEKAKARKI

A TOUR OF INSPECTION

SPEED AND SCENERY

A privileged run over the future Wellington-Paekakariki highway was enjoyed yesterday afternoon by members of the Wellington Harbour Board, Chamber of Commerce, Hutt County Cquncil, Automobile Association, Wellington, and Paekakariki Coastal Deviation Association who, at the invitation ! of the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple), traversed it from end to end through the Ngahauranga Gorge' via Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay. The Wellington Corporation was invited, but had a meeting. It is the first time that a public party has made the entire trip. One and all were enthusiastic over the distance, grade, and curve savings, and agreed that it would be the finest coastal highway giving access to a city in New Zealand, REBUILDING A GORGE. Starting at 2 p.m. from Parliament Buildings, Mr. Semple and his guests paused in the neighbourhood of the major cutting in Ngahauranga Gorge to take in the impressive spectacle of the big machines at work. Clouds of dust eddied round as the shovels tore into the big heaps of spoil loosened by gelignite, and the bulldozers levelled piles of loose rock as though spreading jam. Streams of broken rock and earth, propelled or merely loosened by workmen above, cascaded down steep faces where rocky points are being cut far back to eliminate curves, and the chatter of pneumatic drills and the steady purr of air compressors mingled with the din of caterpillar tractors and lorries taking their loads down to the big filling above the overbridge. Plans

produced by the Minister showed . the ■ route of the finished highway and the cut out of the big balloon loop of old road. The gigantic task amongst the high rocky pinnacles, and the ease with which the rffachines did the work, impressed the visitors, all of whom were familiar with big works under old methods. Water diversion problems interested them, as well as the way old road levels were contemptuously being upset in hard ground. At one point where the direction of the old road is being followed for a short distance the new one will be 30ft below it, while at another the existing road is being covered to an even greater depth. The next feature of interest was the Porirua overbridge, which cuts out a railway level crossing where the visibility was particularly bad. From the Porirua corner, instead of turning to the right, the motorist will go straight on to the overbridge, cutting out a big bend. A corner still has to come off at the Porirua end of the new route. While the disembarked motorists were congratulating the Minister on a fine piece of work, a train obligingly passed below. From the top of the ramp the dangerous character of the old crossing is obvious. PLIMMERTON-PUKERUA. No time was lost over the familiar run to Plimmerton round the easy curves following the inlet coastline, and over the new traffic bridge. Plimmerton was not entered, the string of cars taking the new highway to Pukerua Bay, now needing only paving over most of that length, with short patches still in the rough. Grades and curves have been eliminated amazingly over this portion, which incidentally provided an example of the difference between dustless roads and plain gravel. So good was the surface in parts that bitumen speeds were possible until the clouds of dust so obscured everything that the cars had literally to crawl. As it was, more than once brakes were hurriedly applied as a biscuit-coloured bulk just in front resolved itself into j a dust-covered car, slowed suddenly up by those ahead of it. This practically straight stretch of the highway offers a unique spectacle in its succession of deep cuttings with sloping clay banks reaching away into the distance. Those who scurry over it will know nothing of the deep excavations and fillings which were necessary to find a solid bottom in some of the gully swamps. LOVELY SUDDEN VIEW. It was delightful to emerge from a short, twisty, unfinished part of the work at Pukerua Bay on to the long straight slope leading down to the seaside, where a full width highway, on a grade of 1 in 17, covers the greatest climb on the Plimmerton-Pukerua section, some 200 ft. This spot was the occasion of a halt, where the difference between this and the 800 ft climb over Paekakariki Hill was emphasised. From just here the scenic possibilities of the Pukerua Bay-Paekakariki section were apparent. It is a view one comes upon suddenly, and is certainly arresting, as, apart from the winding, seaside highway, there is always the surf or, on still days, the wimpling j surface of the sea stretching out to Kapiti, diversified by catsp^ws and the mirrored clouds. From this portion onwards there is still much to do to the road, but none of it presents difficulties beyond the seawall and fillings for which the material is handy. It was rough going for low-slung cars. Some drivers were more cautious than others, and speed was low. Delay was caused by half a dozen cars taking an. upper road, which

led to a cul-de-sac. Turning and getting out again brought this batch of visitors to the longest piece of seawall near Paekakariki, just as the others, including the Ministerial party, had almost finished their inspection of it, but everyone had a good look at jit. Where the action of the waves is likely to be boisterous, the wall is stepped on its seaward face, with a slight outward lean, to keep spray off the highway. On most of the coastal portion there is a mass of rocky knobs, visible at low tide, which will break the force of the surf. The wall does not extend along the whole of the seafront, hut is put in only where it is considered necessary. MINISTER CONGRATULATED. A halt was made at Tawatapu Camp, where the men engaged on the big job live, and the visitors were the guests of the Minister at afternoon tea in the social hall. Mr. Semple was heartily congratulated on his work. The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. P. E. Pattrick, said that this new highway was one most important to the district and to Wellington city in particular. He welcomed the opportunity of thanking the Minister. The chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board, Mr. C. M. Turrell, thanked Mr. Semple for the opportunity oi seeing the work at the present stage. The work in the Ngahauranga Gorge was wonderful, there was no question at all about that, and the access to the city much improved. The new Paekakariki wide level highway would be of enormous value to the numbers of motorists who came into Wellington from the north. The appreciation of the Automobile Association, Wellington, was expressed by Mr. E. A. Batt, its chairman, who said that the huge undertaking was most interesting in its state today. Motorists wanted all roads wider and straighter, and it seemed that through the present Minister of Public Works they were getting all they desired in modern roading. From what he had seen abroad not so long ago New Zealand was in advance of any other country of its population. There were more modern roads in Germany, but they were more expensive, and of a form not required in this country at present. "Mr. Semple has brought the

country up to a standard which compares more than favourably with any other country in the world in this respect," he said. The Minister was congratulated on his excellent work by the chairman of the Hutt County Council, Mr. S. Blackley, who pointed out the share the county ratepayers had had in its success. Before the road was built the Paremata traffic bridge had to be built, and to this the county had contributed £7000, the Government providing the additional amount necessary. He thanked the Minister for his hospitality. Under ordinary circumstances the county would have provided the refreshments and invited the Minister to open the road. EARLY EFFORTS. Speaking for the Paekakariki Coastal Deviation Association, Mr. H. D. Bennett said that this new road had been put before the public some years ago. He thanked Mr. Semple and others who had helped to put the road through. It was a proposition which had frightened politicians, but Mr. Semple had taken it in hand. Formerly costs had been estimated and nothing done, but Mr. Semple had put the work through like the other big jobs he had undertaken. Amongst people who had taken interest in the road there was one particularly responsible for it, Mr. W. H. Field, who was present. He thanked Mr. Semple for the work he was doing for the whole of New Zealand. Councillor R. L. Button thanked the Minister 'on behalf of the riding for bringing the end of the work in sight. Both this and the setting aside of 31 acres on the northern side of the Paremata bridge as a public park had been ideals of Mr. Field. "For hundreds of years these roads will be a memorial to Mr. Semple and the men who have done the work," said Mr. Button. "I am sure every man in the country honours him 100 per cent." "The reason which prompted me to ask you all to come today to look at this highway and Ngahauranga Gorge is that there has been a good deal of unfair and unjustifiable criticism in connection with these undertakings," said the Hon. R. Semple, in reply. "I felt that it was my due, as the future is, of course, uncertain, that before my term of office ends, you should see exactly what is being done." It was suggested years ago, he continued, that it would be seven years before the road was put through, but it could never have been even tackled under the old-fashioned methods. If it were a sin to use new methods it was.his, but the work would go through in half the time at half the cost. ROADS AND FATALITIES. "We are today the second highest motorised country in the world," he said. "No fewer than 47,000 new cars took to the road last year. The roads of twenty years ago could not hope to cope with the present traffic increase, unless they became slaughterhouses. Paekakariki Hill could never have been made a first-class highway. The new road cuts out 168 bad bends and 520 feet of climb, and is four and a half miles shorter, and when finished will be one of the best highways in the Southern Hemisphere. It would have been almost impossible to have undertaken Ngahauranga Gorge in the old-fashion-ed way. Now man pulls a lever, and gelignite and machines do the rest. The shovel lifts a yard of spoil; the man just pulls a lever. "In every other country, on our population basis, they are killing two people every day on the roads. Pur last