LIGHTS AND SAFETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 18, 23 January 1939, Page 10

LIGHTS AND SAFETY

A HIGHWAY PRCTCHWE

NOT SO IN AOTEA*OWW

There was one section of the :*#ljrft roading system that was not afl*rfS9 by the power interruptions last vtt&i that was Aotea Quay, Wellington^M^ approach road; it has not a UfWUtt its length. If it were just dark-ifc-wooitihOC'l occasion remark, but in cftsjparisOTl with the ramps tod overbrtage^ Iff beyond anything else ■about yjNStßagi ton, Aotea Quay is the. compietest black-out one could thinkvaboot-^-bladS road surface, no side buildings, side'markings, not even hoardings. It makes a joke of the znudttcgated principle that highway lighting makes for highway safety, and, front whaieau be gathered, it is likely to- remaut brack until the several interests concerned in the lately waning argument <n?etf jjhe widening of Aotea Quay ■ can mal§e*U& their minds about it. The Harbour Board has put its^foot down and has indicated that whatever other arrangements may be made, it is not interested in widening this length of road if that means cutting down the width of its own waterfront, haulage road, running parallel to Aotea Quay; for, the board contends, the present width of 30ft is the very minimum it requires. The argument lies, then, between the City Council and the Railway Department, with other authorities coming in on the side with advice upon modern highway standards.

Nothing has moved for weeks past. The roadway has merely been sealed, drainage and other underground, services for the railway land have gone so far and appear to be going, ever so slowly, a little further, but until something definite is decided Aotea Quay is likely to remain thel pitchest black half-mile in any city in ;New Zealand, in ridiculous contrast with th£ brightest-lit ramps and overbridge in the country. The whole story of the waterfront approach road has been one of interinterest wrangling, leading to long delays and the ill-timing of different sections of the work, so that the overbridge is just about finished. (surely something will, be done about those whitened tar barrels when the work is really finished); the ramp< is reduced in usefulness because a decision to install a system of control for righthand turns was cancelled almost as soon as it was made and months wiH elapse before plant can now be obtained; Aotea Quay is not half finished and is unlit; and Waterloo Quay is a turmoil of excavating, dust and grit, with the whole of the waterfront traffic to and from the northern berthage and traffic which uses the1 overbridge just because it is open, crowded into a 20----foot roadway. • Even now it would probably be a good deal more to the public convenience if Waterloo Quay were closed to all but essential traffic, to give the engineers and the men on the job a chance to get ahead and to overtake some of the delays and misfit sections which have marked this work from its commencement, two years or so ago.