CITY IMPROVEMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 19198, 15 March 1926, Page 6

CITY IMPROVEMENTS

IBPOIfTAHT WORKS IS PROGRESS UAH MONEY USED WISELY The heaviest job now going on under the direction of Mr J. G. Alexander (city engineer) is tho St. Andrew street storm-water drainage scheme, the purpose of which is to secure that lowlying area against Hooding in tho time of great rains. The design is to construct a double-barrelled reinforced concrete sewer in Hanover street, one compartment to take all the storm water from the hill ' area above Hanover street, the other to carry the storm water from St. Andrew street and the neighborhood. Work has been in progress for some time on the lower part of the sewer, where a Bearcut crane (one of the two that were used to cut the Opolio channel) is in operation. The reconstruction _of _ old adjacent sewers in this locality is also planned, it being a necessity to iit in these with the new scheme. Tho whole plan is of a comprehensive nature, and the work will take a-while to finish, well into next year. Another undertaking of great importance is the construction of the outlet of the Opolio channel. It is to cut across the estuary, under the railway line to the harbor, discharging at a point close to the mouth of the Leith Canal. The second of the Bearcut cranes is being used for the excavation of this cut across the reclaimed land. Its length is about I,oooft from Union street. It will be in two compartments. Being a relatively straightforward job, it will not take very long, though it is not a work that can he hurried. Amongst the street works now in hand the making of Hayward street, to run from Eglinton to Glen avenue, is one of the most important. There was an old road line in existence, but this is the construction of a proper road that will be of considerable service to the district. _ The permanent paving with Trinidad asphalt of the Anderson’s Bay road from Crawford street to the railway bridge is practically completed. A strip in the middle of the road is being left for the present, because it is intended to shift the tramlines. When they are shifted the Trinidad asphalt will bo extended to the whole width. Mr Alexander and bis staff are now getting ready to finish off Bridgman street, and make it ns good as the best. Bridgman street is the curved street running from Anderson’s _ Bay road, past the Kensington Drill Hall, to King Edward street., Tho idea is to make this thoroughfare so level and smooth as to entice motorists to use it as an exit from or entrance to the city, and thus relieve tho traffic on the tramway line of King Edward street and Princes street south.

Connecting hits of Trinidad paving aro being done here and there—Jetty street being one of the spots—and before long the city engineer expects to put in band the asphalting of parts of King and Cumberland streets. The citizens are seeing in all directions some permanent and sightly improvements as a return for the loan money expenditure.