Northern beaches needs a Spit Bridge tunnel

A TUNNEL cutting under some of Sydney’s most notorious traffic black spots is one of a series of bold recommendations made by the NRMA in a report to the NSW Government.

A TUNNEL cutting under some of Sydney’s most notorious traffic black spots is one of a series of bold recommendations made by the NRMA in a report to the NSW Government.

The motoring group has urged the government to immediately build the tunnel from Seaforth to the Lower North Shore to bypass crippling congestion on the Spit Bridge and Military Rd where speeds can drop as low as 18km/h in peak hour

In its “Getting the Northern Beaches Moving” report, NRMA experts say the region has been “neglected” by successive governments who keep putting transport issues in the “too hard basket”.

It also suggests plans be immediately drawn up to link the Spit Bridge Bypass tunnel, which will emerge at the Warringah Freeway at Cameray, to the WestConnex motorway, via the government’s proposed second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour.

To ease congestion, the report also calls on Transport Minister Andrew Constance to order his department to plan for an extension of the yet-to-be-built $11 billion Sydney Metro train line — from Rouse Hill to Bankstown via the CBD — to the Beaches via the Lower North Shore.

About 280,000 people live in the Northern Beaches region and make a total of 1.1 million trips by car, bus and ferry, but the report said that decades of chronic under-investment has lead to clogged roads and overcrowded peak hour buses. Close to 70pc of trips are made by car.

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Latest figures from the Roads and Maritime Services show that the average AM peak speed on the combined Military Rd, Spit Rd and Manly Rd stretch between Balgowlah and Cammeray is just 18.5km/h.

On Warringah Rd current PM journey times are not much better with cars and buses crawling at just 23.3km/h between Frenchs Forest and Brookvale.

The NRMA’s Harbour Region director Tim Trumper acknowledges the NSW Government is spending more than $633 million on transport infrastructure and services in the region over the next five years, but most of the current focus is on delivering a Bus Rapid Transit system from Mona Vale to the CBD.

The government is investing $233 million on increasing the number of bus services and increasing operating hours as well as improving roads, bridges and intersections to help cut bus travel times.

But Mr Trumper said as well as a road tunnel, the government should revive the plans of iconic Sydney transport planner John Bradfield and plan for a rail line through Mosman, to Manly and on to Pittwater.

“The difficulty of getting to and from the Northern Beaches is isolating it from the rest of Sydney,” Mr Trumper said.

Generic Shots at The Spit Junction of traffic in the morning.

“In terms of public transport, few regions of Greater Sydney are so poorly served.”

While the NSW Government has set aside $5m towards studies looking into a “Beaches Link” motorway Tunnel “linking the Northern Beaches to the Warringah Freeway and south across the harbour”, the NRMA urges that it be built as soon as possible.

Other NRMA recommendations include:

— weekend clearways from Neutral Bay to The Spit Bridge

— dropping plans to replace transit Lanes with bus lanes

— fast track the widening of Mona Vale Rd

Premier and MP for Manly Mike Baird said he understood the challenges faced by Northern Beaches commuters.

“But there are challenges ahead in terms of rising population and that is why we have allocated $633 million over five years to reduce congestion, improve travels times and services for Northern Beaches commuters,” Mr Baird said.

“We have also reserved $1.1bn from Rebuilding NSW for the northern and southern extensions to WestConnex and the Western Harbour Tunnel, which will provide an additional road crossing under the Harbour and is a necessary precursor to the Beaches Link.”

Mr Baird said work on the Bus Rapid Transit plan will begin this year.