NSW’s transport agency worked on secret plans more than a year before the Rozelle interchange opened to create moveable lanes on the Anzac Bridge and widen part of a motorway through the western edge of Sydney’s CBD to cope with a surge in vehicles from the spaghetti junction.
Yet Transport for NSW quietly shelved the plans after the project – the cost of which would have reached into the hundreds of millions – was deprioritised in the lead-up to the last state election.
The Anzac Bridge has four lanes in each direction. Credit: Dylan Coker
The Herald has seen documents showing that the agency had plans last year to widen a 900-metre stretch of the Western Distributor’s city-bound lanes in Pyrmont from three to five lanes.
Widening a section of the Western Distributor would have presented a major engineering challenge because more than a dozen columns would have to be built – some near streets leading into the existing Sydney fish market – to support the additional overhead lanes. It would also have caused disruption to traffic using the motorway and surrounding streets.
As part of the plans, a so-called tidal flow system was to have been installed on the Anzac Bridge, allowing an extra city-bound lane in the morning peak to be temporarily created when traffic is heaviest.
It would have meant five lanes would have been devoted to city-bound traffic in the morning peak, instead of four at present, while reverting to an extra western-bound lane for the evening peak.
The system would have been similar to that used on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which involves large signs indicating the direction of each lane for vehicles.
The project involves widening a stretch of the Western Distributor by two lanes.Credit: Dylan Coker
The plans were shrouded in secrecy while the state’s transport agency sought bidders last year. The project was estimated to take about three years to complete.
It was separate to the ongoing work to build an extra on-ramp to the Western Distributor for traffic entering the motorway near the new $1 billion W Hotel in Darling Harbour, as well as adding another lane on Allen Street and other road improvements.
Roads Minister John Graham said the previous Liberal government spent several years talking about works around the Anzac Bridge and the Western Distributor but never got community support and did not deliver a single tangible benefit.
“Introducing a tidal flow system takes up to three years which was not delivered in time for the opening of the Rozelle interchange and now must be weighed against the benefits the Western Harbour Tunnel will bring,” he said.
The $7 billion harbour tunnel, which will connect the Rozelle interchange to North Sydney, is due to open in 2028.
Coalition roads spokeswoman Natalie Ward said commuters wanted solutions to the botched opening of the interchange, and not more excuses from the government.
Part of the justification for the Anzac Bridge and Western Distributor project was to support a surge in traffic from the $3.9 billion interchange, which indicates that officials had concerns about the impact of the final part of WestConnex on the broader road network well before it opened almost two weeks ago.
The interchange’s opening has caused chronic congestion on both the City West Link and Victoria Road during the morning peaks, forcing authorities to take emergency measures. Work to add a 400-metre second lane to the City West Link is due to be completed in time for Thursday’s morning peak.
The business case for WestConnex – released in 2015 – forecast an extra 18,000 vehicles will use the Anzac Bridge each weekday by 2031 due to the spaghetti junction and the rest of the toll road.
Graham said the government was focused on trialling improvements that would reduce congestion and assist traffic flow following the interchange’s opening.
He added that the interchange was always designed to have a two-lane approach to the Anzac Bridge from the M4 tunnels, and was not the result of any clause in a WestConnex project deed.
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