TUNNEL ROAD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17351, 16 May 1924, Page 2

TUNNEL ROAD.

REPORT BEING PREPARED. Tlio proposals of Mr H. Hobday ior the construction of a road and a short tunnel to connect Christchurch with Lyttelton have been considered by the Public Works Department, and ara believed to be of sufficient importance to justify a report upon the matter by the Department’s resident engineer, Mr F. Langbein. Mr Langbein has not yet gone intothe question of the estimated cost ot the scheme as proposed by Mr Hobday but he is inclined to think that it rriU cost considerably more than the £BO.OOO that has been mentioned. No is he much in favour of the route or the road connecting the Lyttelton end of the road tunnel with the existing street near the Anglican Church. An extension of the tunnel, he thinks, wi’l be preferable. Speaking generally, Mr Langbein. questioned whether, looking at the matter from the state of things existing at. present, the benefits to be derived from the road and tunnel as outlined by Mr Hobday, taking also in consideration the expenditure involved, would bear comparison with the present road, via Sumner and Evans’s Pass, and the improvement- of the grade on the Sumner side by following approximately tho line of road originally laid out by Captain Thomas for the Canterbury Association Looking at the question of better road communication between the city and the port from another aspect, it is possible that a road and tunnel, as proposed a few years ago, without any grade, would be. in the long run % cheaper proposition than the graded road and shorter tunnel proposed by Mr Hobday. The extra power required to haul loads over the graded road would be a continuing charge on all goods conveyed over it, and would have to be paid by tho consumers of the goods. Mr Langbein informed a reporter that he had not taken into considera- : lion the possibility of tramway tracks being laid on the new road and through the new tunnel: but if it was to provide for tramway traffic the width of the tunnel would have to be in creased.