BIG BUCK SCHEME

Evening Star, Issue 23352, 23 August 1939, Page 10

BIG BUCK SCHEME

■ 1 ESPLANADE FROM ST. CLAIR TO LAWYER’S HEAD COMBATING SEA EROSION DUNEDIN SOLICITOR'S SUGGESTION An interesting scheme that would serve a double purpose in providing a continuous esplanade from St. Clair to Lawyer’s Head and combating the orosion menace along the seafront has been advanced by Mr Q. T. Baylee, the well-known Dunedin solicitor. Mr Baylee has had this scheme in mind for a number of years, and has discussed it ■with a leading civil engineer, wlio,_ without going into any details, said it was workable. The latter added that it had the additional merit of being cheap and of providing seasonal work for unemployed men, seasonal in that it could be commenced and temporarily abandoned from time to time as and when the unemployment situation demanded such a step. The basic idea is to construct piles fitted on two sides with slots, the piles to bo of reinforced concrete and cast with these slots. The piles could be placed at intervals on the seaward side of the sandhills, but well into them. Then the equivalent of concrete boards could bo made in moulds to occupy the space between the piles, their ends fitting into the slots. Thus a continuous wall from St. Clair to Lawyer’s Head would he provided. A second and similar wall could be built on the landward side of the sandhills. The height of the two walls need not he level, but could follow to a certain extent the height of the sandhills. What filling in would bo required 1 could be obtained from the land side of the hills. In this way the main structure of the sandhills would be retained, hut the low-lying property behind the sandhills would he protected by double walls of concrete and the weight of the packed sand between tho walls.

When the sand settled it would sintply be a matter of roading it to provide an esplanade. Ultimately tho area behind the landward wall, partly levelled for tho purpose of filling in, could be let to sports bodies at a nominal rental for tho first few years, on condition that these bodies completed the levelling and sowed down the areas with grass. Additional sports grounds would thus become available, grounds which would also he almost completely, cut off from the southerly winds. That, in substance, is Mr Baylce’s project, and it is well worth commending to the various amenities and beach societies for practical investigation. He adds that it could possibly be financed from unemployment funds. If adopted it would provide useful work for a big body of men. . .