Packed meeting at Leichhardt Town Hall concerned about WestConnex motorway route

CONCERNED residents overflowed Leichhardt Town Hall last night keen to hear about plans for the biggest motorway project in Australia’s history, the WestConnex.

Public meeting at Leichhardt Town Hall on June 16 about the WestConnex project.

CONCERNED residents overflowed Leichhardt Town Hall last night keen to hear about plans for the biggest motorway project in Australia’s history, the WestConnex.

Inner west residents affected by the route of the tunnels under Parramatta Rd are still in the dark about how traffic will be improved after the first stage of work is complete in 2019.

Road authorities are yet to reveal what mitigating measures will be put in place to deal with an expected new bottleneck being created at Haberfield.

Leichhardt Town Hall Meeting on June 16, 2015 about the WestConnex route.

The recent announcement of the preferred route of the $15 billion project, revealing the entry and exit points for the 5km long tunnels under Parramatta Rd, failed to disclose how local arterial roads will cope with the influx.

Local residents fear traffic gridlock in the wake of the estimated 100,000 vehicles that drive along the M4 every day surfacing on the Haberfield exits at Parramatta Rd and Wattle St.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong said the turnout was huge.

“It is a sign of the lack of information being shared through formal channels, that people are trying to find out what is going on,” she said.

Traffic congestion in local streets was raised, along with health concerns about ventilation stacks. Resolutions were passed calling for a halt to property acquisition until a public inquiry was held. The meeting also called for the release of the Environmental Impact Statement and business case for the project.

Community consultation documents lodged with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment show that concerns have been raised that motorists will be forced into local streets for rat-runs. Motorists leaving the M4 East tunnel at Wattle St still face eight sets of traffic lights before Anzac Bridge.

WestConnex Exit Points at Haberfield. From documents released on June 2015.

Stage 3 of the motorway project — linking the tunnels with the M5 towards St Peters — won’t finish until 2023.

A WestConnex Authority spokeswoman said it was working with the Road and Traffic Authority to integrate smoothly with the existing road network.

“One of the key aims of WestConnex, which will be addressed in the environmental impact statement, is improving traffic flow near Ashfield,” she said.

A new right turn from Wattle St into Ramsay St was announced last week. The spokeswoman said a dedicated right turn lane would also be installed for Waratah St on Wattle Street, “removing the existing pinch point which occurs when vehicles queue to turn right”.

City West Link. Near exit point for new M4 tunnel East.

Back in June last year, Premier Mike Baird identified traffic gridlock on the City West Link as a concern and asked road authorities to investigate extending the motorway towards Anzac Bridge and beyond with a second underground Harbour crossing.

Asked by the Inner West Courier last week if the government was committed to the northern extension of the M4 East motorway, Roads Minister Duncan Gay said: “Delivering the WestConnex northern and southern extensions and the Western Harbour Tunnel is now one step closer with the partial lease of the NSW electricity network passing through Parliament last week.”

The construction of WestConnex will ease travel times, the State Government argues.

It has released figures showing a trip from Burwood to the CBD would be cut from 47 minutes to 26 minutes, by 2031.

A trip from Burwood to Leichhardt will be slashed from 30 minutes to 17 minutes. And from Leichhardt to the CBD will go down from 17 minutes to ten.

Professor Travis Waller, director of a transport research centre at NSW University, said managing traffic bottlenecks was always a concern to planners, as fixing one frequently created another.

But the essential point was that there might be more options available to planners at the new pinch point, he said.

Parramatta Rd at Haberfield near where M4 extension will emerge.

“You can also bypass signalisation,” he said. “Sydeny has some of the most dense real estate in Australia, and there are many highly signalised intersections. There’s a lot of freight traffic that cannot avoid it.”

He pointed out residents needed a variety of transport options, both public and private transport, and it was not an either/or proposition.

“The longer you put off projects like this the more difficult they are because of the density and the access to the land,” he said.

When Stage 1 is completed, (the tunnels under Parramatta Rd and widening of the M4), the government predicts motorists travelling between Parramatta and Haberfield will cut travel time by 15 minutes and bypass 13 sets of traffic lights,

Geoffrey Clifton, a transport lecturer at Sydney University, said whenever there was more traffic than capacity, congestion followed.

Traffic authorities had two measures with which to allievate congestion; tolling and ramp metering, he said.

“When you don’t charge a toll, and there’s congestion — you’re actually charging motorists for their time,” he said. “Time of day tolling particularly, can manage that demand at bottlenecks a little better.”

The other option, using traffic lights at on-ramps, which allow two cars through every 30 seconds, had been used successfully overseas and in Queensland.

“That way you get a nice steady flow of cars getting onto the motorway and the merge is easier,” he said.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong is collecting signatures for a petition to present to State Parliament to force debate on an issue she argues needs to be made more transparent.

“By signing contracts for the M4 East tunnel construction without an Environmental Impact Statement or planning approval, the NSW government is showing a blatant disregard for the health and safety of our communities,” she said.

“The company with the EIS contract for the M4 East tunnel also has commercial interests in WestConnex. This makes a mockery of the government’s supposed commitment to an independent and thorough process.”

The EIS is due shortly.