Wahroonga Adventist School: concerns raised over traffic as student numbers set to rise

Traffic mayhem outside a north shore school shows no signs of easing as the college plans to add almost 100 more students while delaying road upgrades to reduce congestion.

A photo showing a procession of cars waiting to pick up students from Wahroonga Adventist School.

Heavy congestion during pick-up runs outside a north shore school is set to continue rising as school officials lodge a bid to delay long-planned traffic upgrades while increasing the campus’s student headcount.

Wahroonga Adventist School has asked the Department of Planning for extra time to build intersection works on Fox Valley Rd as it pushes ahead with the next stage of the school’s expansion for 94 new students on site next year.

The approval of the school’s development plans in 2015 had included conditions to build a new $1.4 million access road with a “kiss and drop zone” and a signalised intersection on Fox Valley Road. The conditions also set a cap of 553 student enrolments until the works were completed.

A photo of the current congestion, as captured by a parent.

The school has just four underground parking spaces.

The school currently has four underground carparks on site, serving its current headcount of 530 students, and the next stages of works would involve increasing the student count to 647 next year as it transitions to a final intake of 800 students by 2025.

In its request to the department, the school has described the cap on student numbers as “impractical” and requested more time for further “consideration of intersection designs” that could involve the resumption of land to accommodate road widening.

“If (the cap) is enforced it will mean that current Year 11 students at the school will not be able to progress to Year 12 in 2021 and will need to complete their secondary schooling elsewhere,” the school said.

“This would cause a major disruption to the school community.”

A concept plan of the completed school upgrade.

Ku-ring-gai Council has raised “considerable concern in allowing for school enrolments to be increased” ahead of the completion of road upgrades, and in a letter to the department has included photos showing lengthy queues of traffic during peak pick-up and drop-off periods.

“Currently, there are four parallel drop-off/pick up bays in the basement car park, which are servicing approximately 530 students,” the council said.

“Prior to COVID-19, the four drop-off/pick up bays in the basement car park were barely coping with the demand for 530 students – clearly four bays are insufficient as recently the same situation of (congestion) appeared to be occurring on November 16”.

Road works would include a new intersection at Fox Valley Road.

Plans to the department show the school is proposing to continue with temporary arrangements for the dropping off and picking up of students via the access road at the adjacent Wahroonga Adventist Hospital.

Traffic impact modelling released by the school predicts up to 215 cars would access the site in morning periods and up to 164 in afternoon periods if enrolments increase to 647 students.

The school said the intersection works are aimed for competition ahead of the final stage of the school’s $39.3 million upgrade works comprising 10 “adaptable classrooms” by 2025.

The North Shore Times has contacted Seventh-day Adventist Schools for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

The school’s proposal is currently being assessed by the Department of Planning.