WATERFRONT PARADE

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1935, Page 4

WATERFRONT PARADE

NEW PLYMOUTH SURVEY GOOD PROGRESS ALREADY MADE. 1000 YARDS LINE OF PEGS TRACED. DIFFICULTIES OF ENGINEERING. Recent reports submitted by officers to the New Plymouth Borough Council and reference made at council meetings by the engineer, Mr. C. Clarke, to a forthcoming report on the proposal have aroused considerable interest again on the question of providing a marine parade along the New Plymouth waterfront. At a recent council meeting a member suggested the work of preliminary survey might be expedited so that planting and improvement work done on the foreshores now might be of permanent value when a start on the work of providing a parade was made. Inquiries made by a Daily News reporter yesterday show that the work of surveying a 1000 yards length of the foreshore along which a parade will eventually run is now well in hand. When approached for a statement- Mr. Clarke explained that no information could be given for publication until the report of his department had come before the council, and that in any case the parade, as far as could be judged at present, was definitely a job very much of the future. He indicated that even a small section of it would provide considerable engineering difficulties and that the job would certainly require money, whatever form it took. The section at present under prehminary survey by the council staff is a section roughly 1000 yards long, extending from the end of New Street practically to the East End beach reserve. Examination of the pegs laid by the surveying party between the tide marks on a foundation of solid conglomerate show that practically a straight line has been taken at an average distance of 100 feet from the base of the cliffs from New Street in the direction of Fitzroy.

LIMITS OF SEA WALL. At the rocky point visible at low water mark to the west of the East End reserve a wide curve has been taken by the surveyors, and the pegs sweep round into the miniature bay of East End itself. Apparently they define the limit on which a sea-wall would be built to reclaim a strip of the foreshore for the formation of a path and carriageway. Two things are evident if the peg line is intended to indicate the margin of a sea wall —considerable material will be needed to build the wall itself and, when it has been built, hundreds of thousands of yards of spoil will have to be found to raise, the foundations of the proposed parade above high water mark. A man with practical engineering experience who accompanied the reporter on an inspection of the area yesterday hazarded an estimate that such a work on the section described would cost little short of £lOO,OOO. Probably the greatest difficulty that would be experienced would be in finding sufficient spoil to make the reclamation permanent and the foundation of the road formation satisfactory. There would in addition be many minor but formidable difficulties of engineering work to be overcome in the building of the sea-wall so that it could stand up to all weather.

One effect of reclamation in the area mentioned would be to lessen the already menacing erosion •of Woolcombe Terrace by which experts are agreed that private and railway property will eventually be gravely affected. Inspection gave the impression that. the sea was not alone as a factor in breaking away the cliff face, but that \vind and weather generally are bringing down clay and earth from the top layers. Permanent work would undoubtedly involve the clearing up of the Woolcombe Terrace problem for once and all. WORK NOT IMPOSSIBLE. “The whole job,” the engineer, summarising his impressions, “is undoubtedly very big, but there is no reason why it should not be done provided funds for the work are available.” Examination of the remainder of the foreshore with the idea of a marine parade in vjew showed that, with the exception of the deep indentation where the railway station lies and possible solid construction work about the baths point, no major engineering difficulties would exist in continuing the parade even from Fitzroy to the breakwater. Admittedly the railway bay would provide a problem of magnitude. However, the breaking of the seas at low water show that there is no great depth of water in the bay itself, and that probably 50 or more acres of land could be reclaimed by a continuation of a sea wall from New Street to the foot of an extension of Weymouth Street. Here again permanence of’ foundation and matter for filling would be the chief difficulty. Survey of the entire area left the definite impression, however, that by reason of expense alone a marine parade for New Plymouth is definitely a long way off, but how far off will probably depend upon the growth of the borough’s prosperity. Reclamation of land will have to have a very definite capital value before finances permit the work to be undertaken.