Rozelle interchange ‘hotspots’ were known 16 months before opening

Toll road giant Transurban has revealed it undertook high-level analysis of traffic “hotspots” and other likely impacts of the Rozelle interchange in inner Sydney as far back as July 2022 and shared it with the previous Coalition government.

Appearing before an upper house inquiry into the spaghetti junction, Transurban’s general manager for WestConnex, Denise Kelly, said the analysis from around July 2022 – 16 months before the interchange opened – considered likely traffic hotspots on Victoria Road and the Anzac Bridge and what could be done to alleviate them.

The Rozelle interchange caused major congestion on the Anzac Bridge and surface roads after it opened last November.Credit: Kate Geraghty

“We undertook some very high-level analysis of the interchange and its impact and what would happen post-opening, and we shared that information with the government at the time,” she said.

She did not elaborate on the findings of the analysis, or the exact “hotspots” it had identified.

Kelly and another Transurban manager faced a grilling on Tuesday at the inquiry from Greens MP Cate Faehrmann about redactions of parts of several documents relating to agreements between Transurban and the government. A Transurban-led consortium operates the Rozelle interchange and the rest of the 33-kilometre WestConnex toll road.

Four pages from a deed for one of the WestConnex motorways relating to “Rozelle interchange compensation principles” have been redacted by Transport for NSW following a request under freedom of information laws.

Transurban’s general manager of WestConnex, Denise Kelly, faces a grilling at the inquiry on Tuesday.Credit: Peter Rae

Motorists using Victoria Road and other local streets have endured major delays while vehicles exiting the WestConnex tunnels from the spaghetti junction have enjoyed clearer runs onto the Anzac Bridge during morning peaks.

It has sparked concerns that vehicles from the WestConnex tunnels have been prioritised over motorists using local routes such as Victoria Road.

Kelly said the arrangements had been for Transurban to take over the interchange once construction was completed, and the principles outlined in the deed related to a framework if the government made major changes or abandoned the project.

“There is nothing in those pages that relate to the surface road network or any kind of arrangements relating to the prioritisation or otherwise of traffic on the Rozelle interchange and on the WestConnex network,” she told the inquiry.

“All of the things dealt with there are in the past and have no impact and no bearing on what we are seeing taking place right now.”

Ramp meters – traffic lights that allow one or two vehicles to pass at a time – were installed on Victoria Road, the City West Link and the toll-free Iron Cove Link but not the WestConnex tunnels, which motorists pay to use.

While Transport for NSW operates the ramp meters, their use has fuelled concerns that they are designed to give priority to WestConnex traffic over other vehicles.

Congestion on Victoria Road in Drummoyne during the morning peak has caused significant delays.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The Transurban officials were grilled about a ramp metering agreement struck between the consortium their company is part of and the government.

Kelly said the agreement covered the maintenance of ramp metering technology and systems, and there were “important reasons to keep that secure” because unauthorised access could impact tunnel safety.

“The agreements themselves do not deal with how Transport for NSW is going to actually operate those ramp meters,” she said.

Sydney’s inner west residents and small business owners have for months vented their huge frustrations at the traffic chaos caused by the spaghetti junction and their dissatisfaction at the state’s transport agency’s response.

The opening of the WestConnex motorway interchange late last year caused severe congestion on roads in Rozelle, Balmain, Drummoyne, Lilyfield and Annandale as motorists struggled to navigate new routes, poor signage and multiple-lane merging.

Victoria Road and local streets in Drummoyne and Gladesville remain the worst affected by congestion. Changes to the sequencing of traffic lights to reduce congestion closer to the Balmain peninsula have caused vehicles to back up further west along Victoria Road in the morning peak.

Councils have also warned that “rat running” is causing bumper-to-bumper traffic on streets north and south of Victoria Road and east and west of Lyons Road.