CITY WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 140, 16 June 1939, Page 8

CITY WORKS

City councillors had the opportunity yesterday of surveying several of the more important works the council has in hand for the improvement of Wellington. The number and magnitude of the various schemes are certainly impressive. Probably at no time, even while the proposals of the 1920 loan scheme were being carried into effect, has there been such orfiyitv, hnth on tht: surface and under grounu. The most important work of all, the long tunnel under the city, to provide a more efficient sewerage system, is visible to the citizen only where, at several points, the shafts giving access to the tunnel,

come to the surface. This most necessary work is making steady progress, and by the time it is finished the sewerage system of the main portion of the* city will have been fully modernised and rendered efficient for a long period ahead. On the surface are such major works as the paving of Waterloo Quay, for many years an obstacle to motor traffic, and the new Western Access road via the fringe of the Bolton Street cemetery, long a matter of controversy and still queried by many citizens as doubtfully meeting the needs of better access to Karori and Northland by comparison with other proposals made at the time. Here the dominant factor in determining the choice of plan has no doubt been the arrangement with the Government by which a public thoroughfare was surrendered in exchange for substantial concessions of property. The selection of the site for the Centennial Exhibition at Rongotai has led to much temporary work to facilitate transport of visitors, but also to work that wjll be of permanent value. This is certainly true of the widening of Evans Bay Road and the new foreshore extension across the reclamation on the waterfront of Kilbirnie. It is a pity, however, that the council could not see its way to retaining the new width of the road, together with footpath, over tlie stretch immediately on the city side of the Patent Slip buildings. Here, if the traffic-way is to be forty feet wide, there will be hardly room for a footpath, and the safety of the many pedestrians who use the road will be jeopardised. There seems to be an element of penny wisdom about this part of the work. On the other hand, there is no question at all about the senseless extravagance of the Ruahine Street extension, which cost a considerable sum of money, serves no useful purpose comparable with the cost, and was apparently not featured in yesterday's tour. Councillors by this time should realise the mistake made, but. the ratepayers have to stand the racket. As we pointed out when the proposal was first divulged, the sum allotted to the work might have helped to secure much better access by another route to and from the eastern suburbs via the Mount Victoria traffic tunnel. As it is, there has been no improvement worth the mention to access on either side of the tunnel without which the full benefit the tunnel was designed to provide will never be realised. Wellington, by the nature of its topography, has been and will be a difficult city to engineer, but this is all the more reason why the ratepayers' money should be spent with wise economy.