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Category: Road Transport / Transport / Government and Politics / Urban Development and Planning / Community and Society

WestConnex changes mean winners in Camperdown, losers in Newtown

Thursday, 10 Nov 2016 07:45:20 | Michelle Brown

The planned M4-M5 link with now be four lanes in each direction. (Supplied: NSW Government)

The Baird Government has moved the goal posts on the WestConnex tollway again — creating winners in Camperdown and losers in Newtown and its surrounds.

The changes apply to the $7-billion M4-M5 link from interchanges at St Peters to Rozelle, where the twin tunnels connecting the two motorways will be widened from three lanes to four in both directions.

Access ramps and a ventilation stack at Camperdown have been scrapped — removing the impact of the road on Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

More WestConnex changes

NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay said the tunnels could now open a year earlier in 2022, with construction and design to begin "almost immediately".

Mr Gay said widening the tunnels would "future-proof" WestConnex.

"Everyone in Sydney remembers Labor's folly on the M5 East that was built with two lanes and it was redundant from the time it was opened," he said.

"In this case we've carefully gone back to the drawing board and made the changes."

Mr Gay said the changes would not cost any more and mean property acquisitions would be kept to a handful of commercial buildings.

WestConnex explained: The policy and politics surrounding the Sydney motorway

The WestConnex motorway is Sydney's biggest infrastructure project since the Harbour Bridge.

The tunnels' alignment has also been moved about a half a kilometre to the West.

The removal of the Camperdown ramps means people travelling to and from Sydney's east will now have only two options to join or leave the tollway — the interchanges at Rozelle and St Peters.

Plenty of opposition

Greens MP Jenny Leong believes the changes will feed even more traffic into St Peters which is part of her state seat of Newtown.

"It requires a reassessment of the environmental impact statement around the St Peters interchange because traffic conditions will be significantly changed," Ms Leong said.

"While on one hand the bulldozers have come in, on the other hand we're seeing lines on the map being moved and changed ... it makes a complete mockery of [the] planning process."

A map showing an earlier planned route for the WestConnex project. Photo: An earlier plan for the WestConnex project before the latest changes. (Supplied: WestConnex Delivery Authority)

Pauline Lockie, from the WestConnex Action Group, said the Government had not given proper consideration to the impact of the project.

"The problem is even traffic that's in a tunnel at some point has to come up somewhere and everywhere that WestConnex is coming up or going in is a disaster for the communities surrounding it, and actually a disaster for the city as well," Ms Lockie said.

Labor MP Jodi McKay said the Baird Government was "making it up as it goes along".

"These changes have been put in under the cover of the US election with no detailed explanation," she said.

"This project has been made up as it goes, this is not how you build infrastructure."

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