SEVEN BIG PROJECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20098, 8 November 1928, Page 12

SEVEN BIG PROJECTS.

AUCKLAND PUBLIC WORKS.

£3,270,000 BEING SPENT.

GREAT GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY.

PUSHING ON THE RAILWAYS

When work is commenced on the construct ion of the Morningside railway deviation. in accordance with the announced intention of the Prime Minister, the Government will be engaged on the most ambitious programme of public works ever concentrated upon one city. No less than £2.500,000 of Government money is being spend in Auckland on schemes now rapidly approaching completion. An early start on tho Morningside project, with its I.J-mile tunnel under the city, will bring this figure well over the £3,000,000 mark. It is instructive to note, in view of the suggestion, inspired for political purposes, that railway development is being neglected, that of (his huge sum no less than £2,700,000 is devoted to railway works in Auckland, including the construction of the Westliold deviation, the new Auckland railway station and yards, the Otahuhu railway workshops and now the Morningside deviation. The balance represents the cost to the Government of tho waterfront road, the modelling of the Orakei Garden Suburb and the construction of the Hobsonville aerodrome, all of which are in course of construction. Cost of Improvement Schemes. The approximate cost of the works is as follows: — West field deviation . . X 500.000 Htiition and yards .. 1,000,000 Oliihuhu workshops . . 600,000 Moniiiigside deviation . . 1100,000 Orakei suburb . . . 350.01)0 Waterfront, road . . . . 120,000 liobsonvillc aerodrome . . 100.000 Total £3,'270.000 The surveys in connection with the Morningside deviation have been in progress for a year past, considerable difficulty having been encountered in carrying out the work owing to tho congestion of buildings along the route, limiting the maximum vision in most cases to the width of the street. The mapping of the best route for the tunnel between Beach Road and Morningside, was complicated by the difficulty of locating many of the city sewers, and a strip 300 ft. wide along tho entile route had to be surveyed inch by inch before a suitable line of route was discovered. The Tunnel Scheme. The new lino will be three miles in length, branching off tho existing northern line at Morningside, running into the tunnel at Newton Hoad arid emerging at the new Auckland station in Beach Road.

Boring will be commenced simultaneously at both ends and also at two other faces at the site of the underground station to be located, probably, between Alexandra and Wakefield Stieets near tho Town Hal!. A smaller tunnel, 10 or 12 chains in length, will be situated at the northern end of Morningside station. Estimated by the speed at which recent tunneling operations have been conducted, a period of four or five years must be allowed for the completion of the work. Long before the Morningside deviation is completed, however. Auckland will have its new railway station and assembling yards in operation and express trains running on the new deviation to Westfield. 8o successful have been the efforts of tho Public Works and Railways Departments to synchronise the progress of the three works—-station, yards and deviation—that there is now every prospect of all thrco being in simultaneous operation by December of next year. Engineers and contractors are now straining every nerve to achieve this end. Hew Station and Yards.

By the end of Ibis month it is expected all the piles for the new station building will have been driven, and early in the new year the steel frame will he put lip. The new outwards goods shed in Breakwater Road will lie opened on Monday. General progress with the reconstruction of the yards is well forward, and all work thai can be done before the new station i.s opened will be ready by the end of next year. The laying out of the. yards wit 11• mt disturbing the tremendous volume of traffic in and out of Auckland station i.s a i (implicated t<i>k which calls for much ingenious planning. In order lay a further 2!, miles of permanent sidings one of the old outwards goods sheds will shortly be removed to a site on the Harbour Board's reclamation, where temporary tracks will connect it with the main line system. This shed, which will lip ready for occupation bv Kehruarv, will be used temporarily for inwards goods pending (be erection of the new inwards goods shod, which will be commenced about March next close to Bench Bond. The West field deviation is well on the road to completion. The last of the overhead bridges is now in hand, the station buildings are going up, the girders on all the Ilohson Bay bridges are in place, two miles of plate-laying has been completed and ballasting operations will be put in hand in a few days' time. It is anticipated the down lino, which will be ready lirst, will be carrying goods traflic next March. From then until the new station is ready goods trains will bo run over (be deviation regularly in order to relieve (he congestion on the main lino through Parrel I, and to facilitate the work of construction in progress in the station yard Workshops Being Manned. Occupation is now being taken of the Olahuhu workshops. Quite 80 per cent, of tho machinery lias been installed and all the sidings aud concrete and asphalt, roads have been constructed. It is just, over two years since a start was made in preparing the ground for the foundations, and exactly 16 months since the work of construction began. The lust contractor i.s now finishing work and the maintenance period ol the main contract expires about, the end of January. Already a start is being made with the gradual transfer to the new shops of the mechanical branch staff employed at Newmarket. The duplication of the main line from Auckland to l'apakurn, was completed some time ago, and this useful work is now being extended in stages as far as Frank ton. Moreover, the installation in the Auckland district of automatic signalling brings the railway system in tho •icighbourliood of this city to n greater stage of efficiency tTian prevails on many of the great railways of older countries Of these seven big scheme* six are already in an advanced stage of completion. Not only do they have an important bearing on the general progress and prosperity of the city, making for greater utilities and travelling facilities, but also in the past year they have played no insignificant part in ministering to the needs of an unusually acute unemployment situation Nevertheless, their full purpose will hardly be achieved until the end of next year, when, with the ex eeption of the Morningside project, all will lie comolcted and in practical operation.