A TUNNEL ROAD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17348, 13 May 1924, Page 12

A TUNNEL ROAD.

THE SCHEME DISCUSSED. TO LINK UP LYTTELTON. The proposal of the. tunnel road to Lyttelton was revived at. last night's meeting of the Council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce when a special committee was set up to report on the scheme. The subject was introduced by Mr Stronach Paterson, who stated that he has discussed it with Colonel H. S. E. Hobday, and had become interested in its possibilities. Mr Paterson said that he. did not apologise for bringing forward again the subject of the tunnel road. AA r hen last the subject was. before the Council of the Chamber it had been referred to the transport committee. Owing to the grades in the suggested tunnel and its approaches it was not thought then that the plan would be successful. lie did not think that the transport committee then had before it any plan or very much data. This matter became of very great interest when the strike was on. The position in regard to the strike was that, if it had lasted for six weeks the industry, trade and commerce of Canterbury would have been paralysed, whereas, if it had lasted for six months the industry, trade and commerce of nearly every other centre' in the Dominion would have gone on very successfully without the aid of the railways. That emphasised the peculiar position that Christchurch was in with regard to dependence on railway communication with its port. That had brought very strongly to his mind the need for some better road communication with the port. ACCESS TO WHARVES. He believed that the question of the. tunnel road to Lyttelton in the past had hinged on the question of whether the tunnel road would be of any use without access to the wharves at Lyttelton. He was open to admit that a tunnel road to Lyttelton without access to the wharves was going to be a very poor sort of a proposition. But there w r a,s no chance of their getting access to the wharves with road traffic until the road was there to carry the traffic. Any demand to get the railway authorities to release their hold on the wharves would be out of the question. But if access had been possible on Easter Tuesday the question would have been settled then and there for all time. All they had- wanted then was the opportunity and they could never have been taken away from them. But they had no access to the wharves because they were totally dependent on the railways. One of the poorest reasons for not investigating the tunnel road, was because they could not get access to the wharves. The railway strike had emphasized the necessity for some improvement in the method of communication. DISTANCES AND GRADES. Mr Paterson produced a plan of the proposed tunnel road. The distance from Christchurch post office to the Lyttelton post office, as the crow flies, he said, was seven miles. The distance via Sumner and Evans Pass was eleven miles GO chains. At the present time the Evans Pass Road was a fine road on the Lyttelton side, with an average giade of about one in 16 or 17. Ou the Sumner side the road was a very bad one. The length of the proposed tunnel road was eight miles, l lle road via Mount Pleasant was ten chains shorter than the-i: Evans Pass Road. On the last, oecasibn the proposal was turned down by the Transport Committee, the only reason being the grade in the tunnel and the approaches to it.

Tho plan showed that 81 chains of road were required to connect with the tunnel entrance on this side, which would be 350 feet above sea level. The grade had been fixed as nominally cue in sixteen. The surveyor had stated that on this side a grade of one in eighteen was assured, and a grade of one in twenty was considered jk>ssible. The grade in the tunnel itself v'as slight, there being a drop of fifty feet in four chains, to 300 feet at tbe exit. A more difficult problem was presented by tbe drop iuto Lyttelton. Mr Langbein and Mr Simpson, of the Public Works Department, had gone oxer the route that day, and Colonel Hobday had since assured him that a. grade of one in twenty was assured on this side, and an improvement in the grade of one in sixteen was assured on the other side. Air Paterson said that his feeling was that in a few years* Jtime, v /when Canterbury grew, the present railway tunnel would be taxed to deal with the goods traffic and if there was a road tunnel it could deal with the passenger traffic.

QUESTION OF COST. The next thing to consider was the question of cost. Very' little could be srid about that at the pregefit time, as the matter had yet to be properly investigated. Some pious expressions of opinion had been made that this tunnel road could be given to Canterbury for £BO.OOO. If it could it would be dirt cheap. He moved that th> matter should be referred to a special committee, consisting of Alessrs Cyrus Williams, T. AY. AVoodroffe, AY. Machin and Trinmell. The chairman v Mr E. H. Wyles. said that if the proposal were given effect to it would l»e one of the most, beneficial things that, the chamber l ad ever done for ulie people of Canterbury. He hoped that in no very long time ahead they would see the road completed. He agreed that the question should be referred to a. special c< mmittee. Air Trinmell said that, even assuming they could get the access to tbe wharves, there was still the bogey of accommodation in the matter of sheds. They could not take delivery of goods from ships without shed accommodation. The special committee should take into consideration the- question of shed accommodation as well as that of access to the wharves. MORE WHARVES NEEDED. Air H. H. Smith said that he thought in justice to the transport committee ho should explain something in connection with the matter in reference to the last occasion tho proposal was before the chamber. Tbe matter was referred to the committee last Septe inter or October and weeks went by and nothing was done Eventually a meeting was- called and only the chairman and himself were present. Then the chairman stated that he was going away for a month and would not be able to touch the matter till he came back. He, came back, and the speaker had not since heard anything of the matter. The sooner the. transport committee was re-formed the better it would be and something might be done. Tbe, transport committee report was intended purely as a pre--1 iminary. They had done only a. little spade work, but the thing was permitted to drag on and so it died. As to tlfe cost of tho proposed tunnel road lie thought that £IBO.OOO would bp nearer the mark. It had to lie remembered also that when tho tunnel was made it would be necessary t 0 enlarge

the wharves to get the necessary shed accommodation The whole lay-out of the wharves would have to He altered. The work in that connection would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. He hoped tha t the special commit tee would work as far ns possible in conjunction with the Harbour Board. Tf they could get the sympathy of the Harbour Board it would he half the battle, because the, Harbour Board would have to do more work than was involved in the building of the tunnel. The tunnel road scheme would not be the they hoped it would be unless they got the assistance of the Lyttelton Harbour Board. The question of access to the wharves was of minor importance—that would come soon enough. FEASIBLE PROFOSAL. Air Machin said the proposal looked A feasible one, and he could not help thinking that the Harbour Board kttiew more about it than some of them thought. He was told that they had 1 airly complete plans for the remodelling of the wharves to meet such m contingency as the building of a tunnel road and were prepared to go on with them. Access to the wharves was an important matter. The committee which visited Wellington during the strike had been amazed at the ease with which Wellington and Auckland were able-to get- over the railway strike. Air Paterson said that one of the jobs of the special committee if it found the echetile worth investigating and carrying on, would be to solve the question of wfliQse responsibility the work was. The outstanding bodies interested were the Christchurch City Council, the Lyttelton Harbour Board, the Heathcote County Council and tbe Lyttelton Borough Council. Air Harris: How is the cost of the investigation to be met? The, committee, he said, could not work without ammunition. It was a. question of how far they could assist the committee in this respect. Air Paterson : T would suggest that we should give them authority to spend up to £IOO if necessary, and if more is wanted the matter could bo referred back t-o tbe chamber Air Smith suggested that it might lie better if the committee did a bit of spade work and then asked the other bodies to be represented aud then the burden could be shared among them. Air A. G. Henderson said he believed there was some money available for this purpose in the hands of some organisations. Air Paterson’s motion referring tho matter to the special committee was carried. Air Maqhtn being appointed convener.