-11-
58
A
however been some attempt, as is so frequent elsewhere, to apply gridiron planning to irregular sites. At the same time there has been a tendency to start levelling rocky ground to produce a level site for a piece of gridiron layout. This has led at times to most expensive site works, through insufficient study of the geological formation, the decomposed granite being irregular in its appearance.
45
The layout of level ground has been dominated by the Gridiron mentality; indeed when once roadmakers and property developers are inoculated with this pattern, it is extremely difficult to throw it off. squared plots on level ground are so simple and effective for leasing and building(especially with standardised Chinese tenements) that they appear inevitable(as has happened with millions of acres in U.S.A.). But this method in which crossroads occur merely as boundaries of blocks or as coverage for sewers and stormwater is directly at variance with traffic requirements which seeks to canalise main routes and avoid cross currents. Nor does the gridiron reflect any of the changing emphasis of community grouping. The main backbone through roads of the Island, Des Voeux, Queens, Henessy and the much finer Nathan Road of Kowloon are rendered ineffective as main traffic routes by reason of these cross roads and the continuous riparian frontages.
The Hillside roads in Hong Kong Island display an exuberance of construction that is quite astonishing: there appears to have been no limit to the length of road in relation to buildings or through traffic:
there was apparently in the past no charge for road making made to the developer. In the future (and a considerable amount of new hillside development is to be anticipated for larger houses), it is recommended that the developers roughly form the roads, which are then to be made up by the Government and charged to the developers : they will then be maintained by the P.W.D. Alternatively, when it is intended to encourage development (and by individual housebuilders), it may be worth while for the Government to form and make up the roads and then lease off individual plots at 'Developed estate' values. In no case in the future should the Government make miles of expensive hillside roads leading to a single house or to a small group of bungalows by the seashore.
Road improvements in a closely built up area, such as the coastal strip of Hong Kong and the tip of Kowloon are not easy to get carried out : major proposals, indeed, are dependent upon two external changes which it will be assumed are to take place : the removal of the Naval Dockyard in Hong Kong and the alteration to the Railway in Kowloon.
•
u5 The urbanised part of Hong Kong consists of one long ribbon through which passes traffio, to and fro : there are insignificant traffic exits at each end - Kennedy Town and Sau Ki Wan and two intermediate exits over the mountain barrier at Garden Road and Stubbs Road(branching as they get higher up). There is a short length on the level, between the Naval Yard and the Barracks where the whole of this urban ebb and flow passes along a single road. If the Naval Yard and Barracks were removed, this bottle-neck could be relieved by duplication : but the solution is not aneasy one as the Business Town Centre would wish to extend over any area that is freed and it would not, consequently, be helpful to cut the area up with traffic routes.