AMBITIOUS PROJECT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 143, 16 May 1930, Page 6

AMBITIOUS PROJECT.

AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE. REPORT OF COMMISSION. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, May 16. An ambitious project to connect Auckland City with the North Harbour suburbs by means of a harbour bridge came before Parliament last session, and the Government undertook to have the matter investigated by an expert commission. The report of this body has been received by Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Works. The commission comprised Mr James Marchbanks, general manager and chief engineer to the Wellington Harbour Board, Mr F. W. Furkert, engi-neer-in-chief to the Public Works Department, and Captain McDonald, retired master mariner and a member of the Otago Harbour Board. The commission does not favour the construction of the bridge. It states: “After careful consideration of all the evidence, and after investigations made in the district your commissioners are of the opinion that the time for the erection of a bridge across the Waitemata Harbour will not arrive in less than twenty years, though it might be advisable in, say, ten years to have th® position reviewed again.” Though the report is positively negative, the engineering experts of the commission have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the various schemes and, subject to the recommendation already quoted, they recommend a site from among the five suggested and give details of the suggested construction. The estimated cost is set down at £1,956,000. The length of the proposed works would be 19,840 feet, and the bridge would need to have a clear height above the high watermark of 135 feet. The commission considers the present harbour ferry services quite adequate, and extremely cheap. A Government contribution is discussed in the report, and although the commission does not consider that the ■work could be brought into the category of an important national work, it suggests £250,000 as the maximum contribution from the State.