Here in Rozelle, we can see the CBD, we just can’t get there

It’s been a huge week in Rozelle. Since Monday morning’s peak hour, there’s only been one topic of conversation among the locals. How do we actually leave our inner-west suburb and reach the city?

One of the great advantages of living in Rozelle and neighbouring Balmain is that it’s only three kilometres from the CBD. I can jump on a bus on Victoria Road and be in town in 10 minutes. But for the past four days, I’ve been like a prisoner on Alcatraz. I can see my destination, but I just can’t get there.

Chaos on Victoria Road and (inset) the sign that fuelled some of the confusion this week.Credit: Nine

Monday morning saw the opening of a brand-new 1.1 kilometre tunnel leading from the eastern end of the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge. Taking it avoids seven sets of traffic lights, but the signage in the early days did not make it clear that it was toll-free, causing motorists to bypass the tunnel to stay on Victoria Road. Meanwhile, the experts at Transport for NSW simultaneously closed lanes on Victoria Road, Rozelle, and moved the bus lane to the middle lane, creating total chaos.

Before the changes, motorists leaving Balmain at Robert Street to turn left to the city encountered three lanes merging into two; it’s now three lanes merging into one, transforming it into what is inadequately called a “pinch point”. Transport expert Mathew Hounsell is quoted in Friday’s Herald as saying that the Rozelle interchange is a “design flaw” because it’s funnelling too many vehicles into a road which is too small to take them. Did anyone anticipate a problem?

Journeys which should take 20 minutes are taking at least three times as long – by car or by bus. Many drivers are turning around, driving back to Balmain and spending the day working at home. Children are getting to school late and vital appointments are being missed. Almost every resident has been affected.

On Wednesday, actor Rebel Wilson, a local, posted on her Instagram account: “Thanks Rozelle Interchange for now making a 15-minute trip into the city 90 minutes via Victoria Road – WTF?”

Many residents of Balmain gave up trying to get to the city this week, turning around and working from home.Credit: Kate Geraghty

One local resident said she recently attended a pre-opening community tour. When the project representative was told that the tunnel signage was ambiguous, he told her he didn’t think it was important. “It was staggering how wrong he was,” she said.

Balmain is a peninsula, with one main entrance and exit to the base of Victoria Road, just as it turns left onto the Anzac Bridge. These left-turning lanes became impassible after Monday morning, letting only one car through each change of lights. The traffic police turned up, but were unable to do much more than stand around and hope for the best.

The rationale for the multibillion-dollar WestConnex project was that it would get trucks directly to the airport, bypassing the city. But in the process, governments of both hues have prioritised the parts of the project that generate tolls, to the point where we are now the most-tolled city in the world. Politicians adore toll roads because they can bank a large sale price – a sugar hit to the bottom line – and pass on the pain to drivers.

This week’s disaster is particularly galling because the Rozelle residents have already suffered a great deal. Over the past 4½ years, we have lived next to and on top of a giant construction site while the WestConnex tunnel system was being built. The promised pay-off was a vastly improved local amenity – Victoria Road would carry local traffic only, transforming itself into a “Parisian boulevard”. Once the tunnel opened, the story went, we would be able to stroll along the strip, baguette in hand, en route to a dejeuner sur l’herbe under the plane trees.

The reality is more Beirut than St Germain. In response to a question from local member Kobi Shetty this week, deputy premier Prue Car said that she had had “advice from the experts that it would take six months until the network settles and motorists adapt to the new conditions”. Six months! And what are we supposed to do in the meantime – buy a boat?

The local WestConnex team has been particularly helpful, advising residents that “major changes to the orbital network do alter driver behaviour until they familiarise themselves with their preferred road/route”.

Until that happens, I’ll be activating a long-held plan: immediate secession. Once I’ve corralled the locals into forming the People’s Republic of Balmain, life will be sweet. Thanks to a rash of local restaurant openings, along with some of the best bakeries in Sydney, we are now completely self-sufficient for food; for everything else, I’ll buy a drone. And we will ensure that the barriers which go up on Victoria Road every New Year’s Eve to limit visitors to Balmain will stay up for good. See you next July.

Margot Saville is a writer. She is also the Herald’s deputy letters editor.

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