Bradfield Oration: Sydney’s $87b infrastructure injection to pay off
Imagine a city where roads are uncongested, home, work and leisure are all close. A massive NSW government roads and rail program, to be unveiled over the next two years, is expected to transform Sydney and make it on par with its global counterparts.
Imagine a city where roads are uncongested, home, work and leisure are all close, and there are no Spanish builders standing around and peering into a hole in George St.
That is the Sydney that is coming at the end of the enormous $87 billion NSW government cash splash on infrastructure.
For the past two weeks The Daily Telegraph’s Bradfield campaign has sought to remind our political leaders and infrastructure builders of the need to build for the long-term.
To have the vision that John Bradfield employed to build a bridge that future-proofed the city.
He did so at a time when there were so few cars at night when the Harbour Bridge opened in 1932 that toll collectors played cricket on the road.
The Bradfield campaign has also highlighted the dangers of red tape that is snarling progress and slowing big-vision projects.
But despite this, new Labor leader Michael Daley has pledged to put in another layer of bureaucracy — the Public Planning Inquiries — to examine the full business case of any large-scale project over $1 billion.
He said the body would end the “secrecy and bungles” that have led to major works like the light rail coming in over budget and behind schedule.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian told The Saturday Telegraph the Labor plan put infrastructure investment at risk.
“Their only infrastructure plan is to cancel vital projects and introduce more red tape to make sure the rest either don’t go ahead or are slowed down,” she says.
“Under Labor there would be no F6 Extension, no Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link, no Sydenham to Bankstown Metro rail upgrade; and their red tape means projects like the Western Sydney Metro and North South Rail Link to the new airport will never see the light of day.”
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Those projects are beginning to come on stream now and they will revolutionise life in Sydney.
“This once-in-a-century construction boom here in Sydney and across the state is the greatest investment in our nation’s history,” Berejiklian says.
“Each one of our major projects — Sydney Metro, WestConnex, NorthConnex and the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, will have the same impact as the Harbour Bridge and will transform Sydney.”
After decades of sitting in gridlocked traffic or standing on overcrowded trains, the Premier has promised commuters the wait is almost over.
“No matter where you live you will benefit from the NSW government’s record infrastructure program,” Berejiklian says.
“The $87 billion in infrastructure this government is delivering over the next four years is going to change lives for the better.”
And experts say it cannot come a minute too soon for fed-up Sydneysiders who have suffered through the city’s slide down the congestion rankings to the bottom third in the world.
“Traffic congestion is one of the big issues holding Sydney back, from being a truly great city compared to its global peers,” says Jane Fitzgerald, executive director of the Property Council in NSW.
She says a comparison of cities with a similar population — including Melbourne, Montreal and San Francisco — left Sydney trailing behind.
“Sydney was ranked in the bottom third of cities globally for peak-period congestion,” she says.
“Compared to its global peers, the cost of transport is higher and the time spent commuting is longer for Sydney resident. But Berejiklian says that is all about to change.
“We are delivering the roads and rail which will allow people to spend less time travelling and more time doing what they need to or what they enjoy.”
Soon it won’t just be royalty and US presidents getting the rock star treatment by whizzing through Sydney’s notorious traffic lights as the city’s big infrastructure projects finally pay off.
Sydney’s long-suffering motorists and train commuters can look forward to substantial time savings and clear runs as a host of landmark projects progressively open up, some as soon as next year.
A whopping 52 sets of traffic lights will be bypassed for drivers heading from Parramatta to Mascot Airport via the new WestConnex motorway.
A major part of the project, the 6.5km tunnel between Homebush and Haberfield, will open late next year and cut out 22 lights.
In Sydney’s south, between Kingsgrove and St Peters, another new set of tunnels for the New M5 is due to open within 18 months and cut up to half an hour from an average peak journey between Liverpool and south Sydney.
The F6 extension — a 4km tunnel connecting the new M5 Motorway at Arncliffe to President Ave at Kogarah — wipes out 23 sets of traffic lights on the Princes Highway.
The $2.6 billion project will take 10,000 vehicles off General Holmes Dr every day when it starts in 2024.
A motorist travelling the 1000km between Newcastle and Melbourne will not have to sight a red light once.
That’s thanks to the $3 billion NorthConnex, a 9km tunnel linking the M1 Pacific Motorway at Wahroonga to the Hills M2 Motorway at West Pennant Hills, eliminating 21 sets of lights along Pennant Hills Rd when it opens at the end of next year, or early 2020.
“If you live on the Central Coast you will be able to get to and from Sydney half an hour faster using NorthConnex,” Berejiklian says.
“If you live in Parramatta or Penrith you will be able to get to Sydney Airport 40 minutes faster using the new WestConnex and Gateway roads.
“If you live in Rouse Hill and currently catch a bus to and from the city for work you will save 72 minutes a day by catching the Metro rail.”
The train savings are also substantial.
The new Sydney Metro Line 1, from Tallawong to Bankstown via city, will slash 36 minutes off the Rouse Hill-to-city journey.
It gives a travel time of 46 minutes to Martin Place compared to around one hour and 22 minutes from Rouse Hill to Wynyard by bus.
Similarly, it will cut 15 minutes off the journey from Bankstown to the city, and 25 minutes off the journey from Bankstown to Macquarie University.
Berejiklian says that without strong management on the economic front by her government “these game-changing projects” would not be possible.
Another big project, the Beaches Link with the Western Harbour Tunnel, is a few years down the track (with an estimated 2026 opening) and will also smash congestion.
A total of 27 minutes will be cut from Brookvale to the city CBD, 41 minutes from Dee Why to the airport, and 23 minutes slashed from Manly to Macquarie Park.
All up, 19 sets of traffic lights are eliminated through The Spit, Mosman and
Neutral Bay.
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