THE CHINA MAÏL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1957.
Is this the
the answer for Nathan Road? 22
UGLY DUCKLING What sort of Hongkong
from Eric Kennedy
Brussels.
SUPER three-lane highways, strung, 30 feet in the air on single centre pillar supports, are the answer to any choked city's traffic problems.
The man who says so is Omer Vanaudenhove, Belgium's dynamic Minister of Works. And he should know. Dark-haired, handsome Vanaudenhove put
do you want to live in
TOMORROW!
ILL this novel idea work in Hongkong?
up one of these cheap easy-to-build fly-overs as part GREAT DEBATE W suitable for van Colony, Jeniging by its loved the congested
of his £140 million plan to ease the traffic problem in the bustling, congested Belgian capital.
Cross town By-pass
His fly-over-about five-eighths of a mile long, over which motorists can leap from Brussels North station over the Brussels Canal and down on to a slick four-lane motor road link with the fast "autostrade" to the Belgian coast-was a sort of ugly duckling.
Vanaudenhove thought road tunnels were the answer to Brussels traffic worries. He put in tunnels.
18
His "viaduct," as he calls the fly-over, was an experiment. "But," said the happy Minister, "these single pillar viaducts are the answer to any city's traffic problems.”
BELOW: Drive,
Park, Shop
and
Vanaudenhove is so convinced of this any observer can only agree-that he is having his "viaduct" extended. What is more, he plans to build about a dozen others around the Belgian capital,
Secret of these elevated highways is that they do not hinder the "surface" traffic e down below. They are built like a mushroom. The heavy elevated road is supported by centre concrete pillars at about 15-yard intervals.
The great debate on Hongkong's Traffic
continues.
Once it was "Bridge v Tunnel". Then it was "Tunnel v Speedway" the speedway being a wonderful scheme put up by Mr K. A. Watson for a six-mile causeway over Hongkong Harbour's western approaches.
Arguments for the causeway were that bridge or tunnel would cause too great a congestion in already overcrowded Nathan Road.
Arguments against any cross harbour improvement on the present ferries was "too much congestion anyway";
'But the real argument was never stated. It was "What sort of a town do you want to live in?" Because the kind of town depends on the kinds of roads.
BETTER & BETTER?
a
Day by day, in every way, Hongkong and Kowloon get bigger and bigger. But do they get better and better?
The speedway visualised absorbing the growth in a great spread of urban building from Kowloon along the coasts, and over
the hills around Shatin..
But do you want to travel miles to get anywhere? And what sort of roads or cars will carry you?
Is it the judging local conditions, have a stretch road of length built
Queen's Road, Central, or any part of the city where traffic is densest? because of the limited space in the Colony.
Both domestic and commercial buildings seek to extend upwards And why not roads to extend skyward too?
*
Last week I put the plan face would be partly re- He said the scheme was to three important mem- duced for use.
definitely not suitable for bers of the Itongkong com- Mr Fisher added that Queen's Road or any roada ....... each que vitally there were other engineer of sintllar width. munity
from them, the question of concerned, in his own way, ing problems but, apart skyway natural light was imm wor- portant.. "Shop on the
in trafic.
How would highway affect ries?
his
"It is suitable only for wide open roads like the King's Road where there
ground level might be shut are nice wide footpaths on off from natural light and both sides," he said. "But they are not going to like at present or even in the near future, traffic conges- tion. will not reach such a Mr Fisher said that this state as to call for an upper
that," he said.
Mr A. Morrison, scheme would work well in Senior Police Superin- the New Territories, where Mr Allport said that the
the open roads like those in layer on King's Road," tendent (Traffic) : the sides were not bounded real problem at present, in by shops or houses, But Hongkong was pedestrian "Anything to ease the traffic flow of trallie is welcome. was not so congested as to
on the open roads traffic, not motor traffic.
Eliminate some bottle- That is anything within warrant such a project. renson, of course," But he
necks and devise some ways He thought that in city thought that the streets limits,
in which vehicles could were too narrow for such & path on either side of a pedestrians paths. In busy an clevated fool travel without crossing the scheme and the shops, on motor road would be more pereets, the now of trame the present rond level might suitable to keep pedestrians would be considerably cased,
ayay from the main the- he said. roughfares.
be shut off from natural light.
However, Mr Fisher said: "This double-decker the- roughfare might be useful in short stretches to serve Mr F. A. Fisher, as grade separations. at
road junctions Acting Chief Engineer that at the foot of Garden of the Roads Office Road."
(PWD);
"This scheme is not prac-
of the narrow streeks
tions.".
*
and Mr K. B. Allport,
•
level and the incline lead-
tical for Hongkong because other engineering consider an architect, one of Mr Fisher said the upper the ardent advocates road would have to be at of the cross-harbour least 16 feet above ground bridge, commented: ing to and away from. this "Not very practical. 1 elevated strotch could not don't think it will ease the have a gradient of more flow of traffic very much. And this The cost would be prohibl than 9 or 10:1. Inclined approach and leau- tive." away would' therefore He said that though the stretch out quite a dis. cost of this raised thorough- tanco from the actual cle- fare would be cheaper than The blood of a modern city is its trans-vated rond itself.
a tunnel, the cost per mile What The upper road would would be very high, but the be supported by columns iden would be useful in
the lower road and that over at busy road june- meant the lower road sur- tions..
The bridge suggests a town growing skywards, centralised in the Kowloon peninsula. But what sort of life would you hope to lead in your "lift and taxi" city?
port. The corpuscles are its cars. kind of veins and arteries can prevent civic studded along the core of modified form as [a "fly-
eries can
arteriosclerosis?.
In this way, trams and buses can actually run underneath the elevated road. With huge spacings between the centre pillars there is no hindrance to crossing traffic which passes underneath the high-they come.
·way.
.
And perhaps more important-when
DO YOU THINK YOU WILL LIKE THEM? by J. P. Prettejohn
The King of Whiskies