Wainuiomata Tunnel: As early as July 1925 the Wainuiomata Ratepayers were requesting the Hutt County Council to support a movement to have a tunnel constructed leading to the Wainuiomata Valley. A tunnel access was begun and promoted by the Wainuiomata Development Company in the 1930s as the ideal approach to their new subdivision. Originally planned to begin in 1930, work on the tunnel began in 1932 and carried on into the depression of the 2930s, achieving approximately one third of its proposed route through the hill. Plans provided for a tunnel 49 chains long and 16 chains of this were bored from the Lower Hutt side from a site directly above the junction of Gracefield and Hutt Park Roads. The tunnel was to have been about the same size as the Mount Victoria tunnel in Wellington, and more than half as long again. There was provision for a pedestrian walkway and a two lane carriage 20 feet wide, giving an overall width of 256. The Hutt portal is 120 feet above sea level and the Wainuiomata portal would have been 340 feet, giving the tunnel a gradient of 1:15. The first tunnel plans made no provision for ventilation. Amended plans which allowed for ventilation would have made it higher, wider and longer, decreasing its gradient to 1:17.(*) When the country was hit by the world wide depression, sales of shares came to a halt, and there was no way of raising money to carry on with the tunnel work. Heavy motors were, by then,in general use, and a start was made to widen the Wainuiomata Hill Road, largely with relief labour. The Development Company appealed to the Government to allow relief workers to help with the tunnel, but the Government was adamant - the tunnel was a private undertaking and no Government money would be used to employ workers on it. This, not withstanding that when the tunnel was completed to the satisfaction of the Public Works engineers, it was to be handed over to the country as a public tunnel. (*) The Hutt News 10 July 1973, WOM Historical Society NCC. The further history is continued below - hope you can read the print. The B&W photo comes from the Wainuiomata Historical Societys collection. The whole extract is from the book Wainuiomata - Glimpses from our Past, by Colleen Hira and myself, published 2009.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:15:10 +0000
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