Talk:Lyttelton road tunnel

Assessment comment
Substituted at 22:40, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

History section needs better citations
I have added some notes about citations being needed for various statements about the early history. Who is saying this stuff? Because they appear to have misunderstood the situation. Construction of the Sumner Road began in 1849, with the route being surveyed by Captain Thomas and Edward Jollie. The Canterbury Association had begun construction of this road in 1849 but Godley stopped construction in 1850, due to the expense. In his 1941 history of Sumner, J. F. Menzies, Sumner Borough Council Town Clerk, notes that the earliest records he had access to is that Canterbury Provincial Council, in its second session, had past an Ordinance in March 1854 to appoint 5 Commissioners, who made their report in May 1854 via the New Zealand Gazette. This included the option of a road tunnel. Consequently, it would be interesting to understand what is meant by a Select Committee in 1851. The sources from the early 1850's, such as the Lyttelton Times suggest the major problem at the time was one of several thousand settlers getting out of the port town of Lyttelton to settle on the land on the Canterbury Plains, not one of bringing produce to Lyttelton. The phrasing of this early history suggests a modern view has been applied to the problems of the time rather than looking at sources in their historical context, so misunderstanding why the events happened and resulting in a misleading interpretation of the history. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 03:38, 26 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The statement "In 1851 a 'Select Committee enquired into the best means of access to the sea." does not appear to be backed up by a contemporary source. The Lyttelton Times of 15 November 1851 notes, on page 5, in column 3, that "The Special Committee appointed by the Society of Land Purchasers, to take into consideration the subject of communication between the port and the plains, have reported thereupon, ... this report is ... about to be published ... ". While the report's authors might have described themselves as a select committee, they were reporting on communications between the Port and the Plains. The order is important. The general tenor of discussion at the time is how to get out of Lyttelton and settle on the lands that had been purchased. While a tunnel might have been considered by the report, this is not mentioned by the newspaper, so probably was not a serious option. As pointed out by the Rev. O. Mathias, in his comments to the meaton on 6 December 1851: "The project of a tunnel through the hills alluded to in the Report, ... [is] too visionary and chimerical to deserve any notice at present.". The report is primarily concerned with either improving navigation across the Sumner Bar, or constructing a road over the hills. The Evans pass route seems to have wone favour because it was the lowest pass of all considered and the most direct because it was only half the distance of any other option and the route had already been surveyed as well as a track partly made, before being stopped in 1850, due to lack of funds. Yes, a tunnel was thought about in 1851, but this was more likely a railway tunnel than a road tunnel, so it is important to know what sources are being consulted, and, if possible, read them, to understand what was being considered and what weight the people of the time put on the various options and why. Just because one source says so doesn't necessarily make something true; we could be looking at corporate spin in the historical sources, so understanding who is saying these things and how accurate what they might be saying really is. At the moment, I doubt what is being said in the first paragraphs of the History section is accurate because it does not accord with other historical sources that I am reading that appear to be more trustworthy and faithful to the issues of the time because they are generally consistent with the reported facts. The present rendering of the early history of the Lyttelton road tunnel is not. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:09, 27 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The statement that "From there it was taken by longboat and lighter around Lyttelton Heads to ships waiting in Lyttelton harbour." is rather speculative and understates the hazard of crossing the Sumner Bar and as well as an 8-mile journey in open sea in often rough or stormy conditions. In rough conditions a longboat could be easily swamped on the bar or in the open sea. A lighter would not be very maneuverable in the 5 knot current across the bar and would need to be taken in tow for a sea journey. Advertisement and reporting in the Lyttelton Times indicate that a cutter or a schooner or, later, a paddle steamer, were used to ship goods that could not be carried by horse over the hills. On 27 June 1851 several coastal ships were driven ashore in Lyttelton Harbour during a gale, some that had survived an storm earlier in the month. Reading the port newspaper of the day, or other well researched histories, is more informative than uncited speculative comment. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 00:03, 28 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The statement "When the first Europeans settled in Canterbury in the 1850s ..." is inaccurate. The French planned a settlement at Akaroa and the first European, i.e. French, settlers arrived in 1840. I think what should have been said here is "When the first Canterbury Association settlers arrive in 1850 ... " or something else about who were farming on the Plains before the settlers arrived. But that still sets the wrong historical context. The Association surveyors had already recognised a road between Lyttelton and Christchurch was needed and commenced construction in 1849, before the settlers arrived. This early recognition of the problem and the failure to follow through with those initial plans, for various reasons, sets the historical context for the subsequent events that occurred after the settlers arrived and the eventual need for a road tunnel. I think this pre-settlement history is relevant and needs to be explained better. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:43, 28 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The statement that "valuable heavy transport had to sometimes use Gebbie's Pass as frosts in winter could made the other two roads unsafe." appears to have become misplaced during editing. This appears to be referring to a different time period because the citation is from 1957 but does not support the statement made, so cannot be verified. In the 1850's, several different road lines were suggested, including Gebbies Pass, but they were much longer than a route via Evans Pass and the proposed routes had not been properly surveyed. The advantage of the route over Evans Pass was that it was lower than the Bridle Path route and a dray team could make a return journey to Christchurch in a single day and avoid overnight accommodation costs. Please remember that this is the 1850's when travel often took place at walking pace, or on horseback, and a fast journey from Christchurch to Lyttelton might take 4 hours. This article is about a road tunnel, and the section is about early settler efforts. Since a tunnel was proposed as part of the road plan for Evans Pass, and not the other two road, part of the story should be why the Evans Pass route does NOT now have a road tunnel under the pass at Gollans Bay and why a zig-zag up to the pass was used instead. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:42, 29 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The history of the Lyttelton road tunnel, the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, the Bridle Path as well as the Sumner Road should be consistent. Contemporary sources, such as the Lyttelton Times, suggest more modern sources might not be fully explaining the facts and as a results editors are further summarising the early events and might be glossing over the actual issues involved. As far as I can ascertain the basic timeline is in mid-1849 the Sumner Road began construction in Sumner with what is now known as Captain Thomas Track. Construction stopped in April 1850 due to lack of funds and the Bridle Path was constructed instead. When the Canterbury Association settlers arrived in December 1850 they had to use the Bridle Path to cross the crater rim to get out of Lyttelton and walk to Ferrymead where they crossed the Heathcote River before travelling onward to Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains. Ships up to 30 tons, carrying heavier goods, could also sail, and later steam, up to Ferrymead (and further up-river) but had to cross the Sumner Bar, making that sea route hazardous in rough weather. There was no suitable route a horse and cart could use until the Sumner Road opened to (light) traffic in January 1858. The "Official" opening in 1857 was a political one-off occasion for the departing Superintendent FitzGerald. Most easily accessible historical sources I have seen, fail to set these facts out in full detail for the modern reader, particularly omitting that construction stopped on the Sumner Road due to lack of funds and this route was abandoned in favour of a different route. This oversight is probably because the researchers are concentrating on their own particular projects and do not see the wider facts of these as inter-related public engineering works all intended to meet the public need for some suitable means of safe and reliable physical communications between the Port and the Plains. That requirement is just as relevant today as it was in 1849. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 05:13, 30 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Relevant citations :
 * - This report gives 4 options including a road and a railway tunnel, with estimated costs. The 5 commissioners, identified by name, appear on electoral rolls, etc. of the time described as civil engineers or, in the case of Jollie, is known to be a surveyor.
 * - Cameron Dewe (talk) 11:47, 30 December 2020 (UTC)
 * - This report gives 4 options including a road and a railway tunnel, with estimated costs. The 5 commissioners, identified by name, appear on electoral rolls, etc. of the time described as civil engineers or, in the case of Jollie, is known to be a surveyor.
 * - Cameron Dewe (talk) 11:47, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

What you are saying is mostly correct, Cameron Dewe. The main issue of the time was goods transport to the port, though. Early on, there was practically no domestic market within Canterbury and much of the product that was produced was shipped out; mostly to Wellington. The issue was getting the stuff to the port. A number of ships were lost on the Sumner Bar and consequently, cost of sea transport to Lyttelton was almost prohibitive (I've seen a report that stated that freight cost from England to Lyttelton was the same as from Lyttelton to Christchurch). There also was the issue of settlers wanting to live on the Canterbury Plains had to get their belongings from Lyttelton somehow. Much stuff was packed over the Bridle Path, but it's still as steep and unpleasant now as it was then. Yes, Godley pulled the pin on the Evans Pass road during 1850. Yes, the 1857 opening of that route was a big political affair (and James FitzGerald was an ardent opponent of the railway tunnel proposal and was so enraged by the idea that he founded The Press in 1860). Once the tunnel had been built, it did wonders for the economy. The railway was extended in all directions in a hurry (I gave a talk in 2019 on just how fast that happened; it really was astonishing) and it all resulted in a lot of land speculation (see, for example, the article on Barrhill). Good sources that give the relevant context are and. And one more wee detail – at the time, people would think of Banks Peninsula being separate from Canterbury, mostly because it wasn't part of the purchase made by the Canterbury Association. And yes, Christchurch was basically empty of people pre-1849 when the surveyors moved in. There were the Deans brothers in what is now Riccarton but that was it.  Schwede 66  21:40, 30 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks  Schwede . Reading the early issues of the Lyttelton Times, one gets the impression that the primary issue was getting onto the lands on the Plains from Lyttelton, at least in 1851 it was. The need to get produce from the Plains back to Lyttelton came later, as the land started being farmed, not just developed. Who planned and built those first roads? They didn't appear magically overnight. Most of the histories appear to skip over the significance of the first land surveyors and road builders, who they were, and what they did before the settlers arrived, particularly in Canterbury, where the Association had sent in surveyors over a year before the settlers arrived. This bit of the history is only recently being revealed. Although it is there, in some of the more specialist sources, and some of it seems to contradict what other historians say. I suspect some historians have not fully researched or have overlooked the significance of these pioneers who first looked upon the land, mapped it accurately, and laid out the roads and staked out the sections that others would travel and settle on. I am not saying you are wrong, but my question is why did Dobson choose to take the Sumner Road over Evans Pass rather than tunnel under it as he originally planned and advertised a contract for? Something happened in 1854 or 1855 that is not in the sources I currently have access to. As a result of that decision and the resulting inadequate Sumner Road, the rail and road tunnels were built, and a new Sumner Road built to the top of the pass, too, apparently along Cridland's original line. When I was much younger, I would often look across the Sumner valley and wonder why somebody would build a perfectly good looking roadway halfway up the valley and not finish it. I was told it was because the rocks were to hard to cut a road into and the road stopped at that sticking point, but reading Dobson's account the story appears to be a lack of funds and a political unwillingness to spend enough money at the time to finish the original road, and the sticking point is somewhere completely different. Understanding the thinking of the engineers and surveyors of the time, and the choices they made, assists with understanding the works we write about today. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 14:55, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Another thought. This article indicates the first settlers around Christchurch were not the Deans, but an earlier group of settlers, who abandoned the farmland the Deans later took up. The Deans also had employees, including the Gebbie and Manson families, so there probably a few more people living on the land than simple land ownership might suggest. Though, not too many, and the Deans farm was about it. Akaroa, however marks the beginning of European settlement on Banks Peninsular, in 1840. While it was not part of the Canterbury Association settlement in the 1850's, it is now part of Canterbury. This is why I object to people saying The first Canterbury settlers when what they are meaning are The first Canterbury Association settlers. The first settlers that arrived in what we now know as Canterbury were not settling in what we now know as Canterbury, because they called it something else. But we now call it Canterbury. Wikipedia articles need to be told from a real world point of view. To draw an analogy with reviewing a fictional story, the viewpoint we should adopt when explaining the plot is an "Out of Universe" one, rather than an "In Universe" one. We should do a similar thing when explaining the History of a place. The Canterbury Association settlers were not the first, earliest or even early settlers in Canterbury, so they should not be described that way. They can be accurately described as the Canterbury Association settlers and some of these settlers were the first and others were early arrivals of that group, but they need to be qualified in the appropriate way. This about having some attention to detail so that the historic facts are accurately described. Unfortunately, in their zeal, some contributors might overlook such detail and this gives rise to unintended meanings that distort the history and that is not a neutral point of view. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 01:12, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Missing content
This article focuses mostly on the tunnel's construction but neglects other topics and leaves some questions unanswered.

For example: Why was the 20c toll removed and what were the politics around this?

Other issues are:

Tunnel Road
Something needs to be said about the Tunnel Road in the Heathcote valley. The tunnel portal on the Christchurch side is accessed via a tunnel road from a roundabout at Steam Wharf on Ferry Road that was constructed as part of the total project. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:29, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Safety features
Something about the safety features engineered into the tunnel, such as traffic control, lighting, roadside emergency telephones, fire fighting and rescue equipment. Originally there were traffic lights and and emergency bays every few hundred meters. Motorist who broke down in the tunnel could call for help and stop traffic by activating an emergency telephone. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:29, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Dangerous goods and over-size loads
What special arrangements and alternative routes are there for dangerous goods and over-size loads? I understood that after the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011 closed the Sumner route, various newspapers reported that dangerous goods could pass through the tunnel on a temporary permit basis with a pre-planned tunnel closure. What is the situation now? What alternatives are there for goods that cannot travel through the tunnel? - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:29, 26 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Both roads up to Evans Pass were closed after the earthquakes; from the Sumner side (Evans Pass Road) as well as the Lyttelton side (Sumner Road). Evans Pass itself remained open the whole time but you could only get to it by going up Mount Pleasant Road. Evans Pass Road was the first to reopen (can't remember when that happened; at a guess around 2017). Sumner Road reopened on 29 March 2019. Since that date, oversize and dangerous goods traffic has been going over Evans Pass again.
 * Thanks for that. I have already found references to both opening (in 1857) and reopening (in 1919) the "Sumner Road" on various websites. What I am really looking for is media articles about the implementation of the tunnel regulations concerning dangerous goods while the Sumner route was closed. I remember reading something in the news media about dangerous goods going through the road tunnel earlier than 2017 about this but cannot find the media article at the moment. I know Evans Pass was blocked, and closed off by fencing and probably a container (Wakefield Avenue, the main street was lined with containers!) when I visited Sumner in 2013. But this article is about the road tunnel, not the Sumner road. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 21:34, 30 December 2020 (UTC)