Wakehurst Parkway: Push for work to begin soon to help reduce flooding of notorious road
It’s one of our most notorious and inadequate roads, regularly closed by floods and head-on prangs. More calls have gone out to get Wakehurst Parkway fixed — now.
Manly
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“Let’s get on with it” — that’s the frustrated call from motorists and local MPs for work to begin to stop the notorious Wakehurst Parkway from being regularly closed by floodwaters.
The stretch of road between Oxford Falls and North Narrabeen — swamped and shut an average six times a year — is closed again on Monday due to heavy rain.
Now Liberal State MP for Pittwater Rob Stokes is calling on Northern Beaches Council to vote as soon as possible to begin work that will help reduce flooding on the Parkway.
But Liberal Federal MP for Mackellar Jason Falinski says the road needs more than just flood mitigation work and has repeated his call for state authorities to widen the Parkway to two lanes, each way.
A frustrated Mr Falinski said “tens of thousands of locals” had signed his petition for the road — which is managed by the NSW Government — to be upgraded.
In November 2020, more than $13 million was set aside in the NSW Budget to improve water flows under the road with new culverts and drains, creek realignments, sediment removal and new levees at three floodprone locations.
The council, because it has responsibility for managing Middle Creek and Narrabeen Lagoon, must manage this flood mitigation work, using the money from the State Government.
It commissioned a $5 million draft “Wakehurst Parkway Flood Mitigation Feasibility Study”, which went out to public submission in May 2021. The report, which stated that even the $13m could not permanently flood proof the road, attracted more than 500 responses.
The report says that the Parkway would still be closed by floodwater, on average, once every two years.
The release of the draft report came as Mayor Michael Regan confirmed that the NSW Government told the council that it had no plans to completely flood proof the road.
This week Rob Stokes said the new council, elected in December, must accelerate the flood mitigation project.
“The studies have been completed and the funding has been secured – let’s get on with it,” Mr Stokes said.
“There’s no question this project needs to be a key priority of the newly elected council.
“Council staff have done an excellent job behind the scenes – we now need all the councillors to get on board and make this an absolute priority.
“We’ve been talking about this for too long – we need to hit the accelerator.”
Serious flooding in February, 2020, prompted Mr Falinski, to write to the NSW Government, urging it to immediately launch a feasibility study into a Parkway upgrade, including widening the road to four lanes.
This week Mr Falinski the people of the northern beaches “have heard this all before.
“And I share their frustration.
“We were promised in February 2020 that this would be solved within months.”
Mr Falinski said what was currently planned was the absolute minimum in terms of a Parkway upgrade.
“We sit by and watch our community get divided multiple times a year when a number of roads including Wakehurst Parkway are cut off. This floodproofing isn’t going to guarantee that road will not close again.”
In early 2020 Mr Falinski told the then NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance that the federal government had money available to pay for a study into the proposed widening of the Parkway.
Once a feasibility study, or business case was completed, the NSW Government could seek more Commonwealth money to pay for the upgrade.
“But no one seemed that interested,” Mr Falinski said this week.
The findings of the community consultation into the draft flood plan, will go before the council meeting on March 22.
Mayor Regan said Wakehurst Parkway was surrounded by areas of cultural and environmental significance.
“That’s why we sought feedback from the community last year on proposed flood mitigation measures,” Mr Regan said.
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