THE MAUNGATAPU ROUTE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 8 June 1927, Page 6

THE MAUNGATAPU ROUTE

COMPARISONS WITH THE PRESENT ROAD

(Contributed No. 3.)

(Jutii such time as a proper and com-' .survey of fJbo proposed route «fl wade, and as wear ita,possible an oxacfc, ofltimale of ttie cost, of a new roadway in arrived at, it is of'course impossible (o advocate its claims. All expressions of opinion advanced for the time being must be regarded as merely interesting. Let me try and impartially point out the. salient facts, or some of them. The present route by way of the Wan gam oa and the Rai is full of .sharp turns and bonds, and in places (in its present state) distinctly dangerous to traffic, as has been proved over and over again, and the grade in many places leaves very much to be desired, being steep difficult and dangerous. The. distance from Nelson by this route to the Pclorus Bridge is slightly over 37 miles. To reach it you have to cross Gentle Annie (560 feet), the Wangainoa Hill (1230 feet) and the Rai Saddle (810 feel). It is proposed, I believe, to tunnel the Wangamoa— a feat obviously of very considerable engineering magnitude, and unless such tunnel is wide, enough for service cars to pass one another easily, and lofty enough for the big limber heavily-laden lorries to come" through easily it will, of course, be of no practical use. If tunnelled to-morrow you would still have Gentle Annie and the Hat to contend with. This tunnel would do away with many dangerous corners, it is true, and also considerably shorten the distance. As it would be fairly Jong it'would require to be electrically Jit throughout. Its cost would be certainly considerable. It is also proposed that the whole of the road over the other Uilla be improved. This also will entail considerable cost. If the. road is. good, the grade right and the sharp corners made, safe, distance is of no great consequence. Twenty or even thirty miles is not very much of an item to these modern swiftly moving motor cars. Grade, etc., is of more importance than mere distance. The estimated height of the Maungatapu Saddle is 1560 feet from sea level. In the 9 miles of the present roadway up the Maitai Valley to the foot of the range you rise gradually, and almost imperceptibly 1000 feet. That leaves 560 feet to deal with. The choice of at least two routes is open. Firstly by way of Beauchainp Torrent and secondly round the north branch of the Maitai to come out on the Saddle, where the present well-known track over the mountain now is. Good grades by either route on both sides of the mountain are said to be easily obtainable, in fact you can get any grade you wish. By the first-mentioned route a half-mile funnel would cut through a spur, but the, road can be formed easily without any tunnel at all. \ T ou cross over most interesting country, in parts densely wooded, and from the hill tops views of exceeding grandeur can be obtained on all sides. And—this is important—you shorten the distance to the Pelorus Bridge from Nelson by anything from 14 to 20 miles. This road would open up some new land for settlement on the other side of the Maungatapu—this side being mostly a waterworks reserve and also Government reserves for forestry and so on. The whole of the present roadway from the town boundary to the foot of the Maungatapu (9 miles) would have to be re-formed, and -to be of any real use to our modern service cars it would be wise to make the road at least as wide again as it now is, and in places to put it on a higher level out'of reach of the inroads of the river. At least four traffic bridges across the river would have to be built. Down over the other side of the range the road would chiefly run over private property, but it is not anticipated that the owners would raise any objection, and it is even thought possible that they would cheerfully give the required land for the roadway free of any cost. It is clear that the cost of a roadway of the character and stability so roughly outlined, a through road to be of real service for all lime, would cost a great deal of money. Would the game be worth the candle? That's the problem we've got io solve. Meanwhile it would be very interesting to know for sure what it "would cost. Till that is arrived at we can't do a great deal. We've got no financial data to go on, and finance is everything in this world.