Mike Baird | Member for Manly - Community Should Have Say on Spit Tunnel Proposal

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Community Should Have Say on Spit Tunnel Proposal

Monday, 26 January 2009

Northern Beaches commuters deserve to see the detail of the Spit-Cammeray tunnel proposal that has been sitting with the NSW Government for months, said Manly MP Mike Baird who has called for the plan to be released for consultation.

�I have heard many ideas on how to fix the Spit corridor bottleneck and on the face of it, this proposal has credibility, however we need to see the detail,� Mr Baird said.

The proposal, prepared by Macquarie Bank and the Sensible Transport Action Group, recommends a short tunnel from the Spit Bridge to the Warringah Freeway at Cammeray and requires no financial contribution from the Government.

�The Spit corridor is the second slowest road in the State, with an average speed of 26km per hour, so any proposal to reduce journey times must be taken seriously.

�The Government has had the details of this proposal for months � now it is time to let commuters have their say.

�It is one thing for experts to give their opinion, however the proposal needs input from the commuters who have to endure the agony of the Spit bottleneck day after day.�

Mr Baird said a tunnel is only worth investigating if it is built around the provision of a bus rapid transit system.

�Public transport must be at the core of any plan to solve Spit congestion,� he said.

�If the tunnel incorporates access for a constant stream of express buses to the city, it may be worthwhile.�

The plan proposes charging motorists a $4 toll to use the tunnel, however Mr Baird said any tunnel proposal could only be entertained if motorists had the choice and were not forced to use it.

�Traffic must not be funnelled into the tunnel. It�s issues like this, and the benefits for public transport, that the community needs assurances on.�

Mr Baird said he was seeking full details of the Spit tunnel proposal and would arrange forums so the community could provide their input.

MEDIA: Lisa Harrington - 0406 726 880

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Comments (15)

Spit Tunnel Proposal.

Hello again Mike,

Good message.
Yes this is a proposal worth looking at. It must be put to the Community for debate.
As you say, Public Transport is essential. It must be a large part of such a project.
Keep pushing for an open debate.
While most have cars to go around, here we also have a growing elderly population as well a great number of workers in need of Public Transport.
Keep well.
Albert.

Posted by: Albert N. Salles at 27-01-2009 17:57

Spit Tunnel.

Have not the government learnt from the debacle created by the Lane Cove Tunnel mess, forcing commuters to take a tunnel then charging them the earth to do so does not and will never work and nor should it. We should be abel to witness what they are proposing and have our say, and our opinions to be heard and noted. You never know one of the voices out there might just have a solution, it couldn`t be any worse than the Governments `` SOLUTION ``!

Posted by: Debra Arena at 27-01-2009 18:29

spit tunnel

If there was a great bus service that connected to FAST FERRIES,there would be no need to do anything with the spit bridge

As a teenager in l960s I used to catch a bus from narrabeen to Manly, then a Ferry and the shops closed at midday in the city in those days and I would catch a bus back from Wynyard back to narrabeen.

I dont think enoughs been done to use the Ferry situation

Posted by: SUSIE COLVIN at 27-01-2009 18:30

Spit Bridge and tunnell

Mike, It was not long ago that former Roads Minister Roozendaahl proposed a 24 hour clearway on Spit and Military Rds, shaving only miniscule time off the trip to city etc. I agree the details need to be examined especially the fact that alternative route is available. I would also want to know if the tunnell is going to have more than 2 lanes in each direction.
We do not want another M5 debacle.

Posted by: Bruce O'Toole at 27-01-2009 18:38

Community Should Have Say on Spit Tunnel

Mike,

Given that it can often take 20 minutes for a "Express" bus to travel from the Southern pylon of the harbour bridge to Wynyard in the AM peak, what effect will an express tunnel have on these bus-jams entering Wynyard? Buses need more than one lane entering York Street from the Cahill Expressway for your proposal to be effective.

Posted by: Wheelo at 27-01-2009 19:19

Tunnel, for Cammeray

The notion of tunnels is flawed in my opinion.
One only has to see the devastation to traffic that occurred in Melbourne when the govt run tunnel funnel system is thrown into chaos as a truck caught fire. The system was unusable for 3 days. And the Sydney tunnels are badly ventilated, and the M5 east is grossly undersized.
I would however favour an elevated roadway directly above the existing military road as is done in Bangkok and many other cities around the world. The existing road can remain in place and the overhead road is the throughway to the city and the north and west.
Also the overhead road can lead onto the new high level bridge over the top of the existing local road system at the spit.

It is disappointing that Australian road engineers are so blinkered in relation to their tunnel focus which has proven a fairly poor performer in recent experience.

Posted by: Ross Trivett at 27-01-2009 19:58

new tunnel

I support that the tunnel can only be viable if a bus rapid transport system is included. incorporsating park & ride facilities eg develop Brookvale bus depot into a major bus interchange /terminus and a high rise car park providing free car parking with bus fares

Posted by: Mark Dowling at 27-01-2009 21:18

spit bridge

The tunnel seems as good idea but why stop it beforre the spit bridge.We still have to build a new high level bridge with more noice polution in the district and spoil the beauty of the spit and after paying for the use of it we are only going to stop at the Manly rd lights.So what is the good of it.Tunnel will be good if it went passed the Manly lights or just put the 6 lanes on the bridge for a fruction of the cost so we can have free use of the roads and offer people better puplic transport and cheap so they will want to use it.Fix Warringah rd with overpasses .
Tony Pallas

Posted by: Tony Pallas at 28-01-2009 05:21

Toll Roads

Hi Mike,

Instead of worrying about providing alternative routes to Toll Roads, why not make all roads "free" (isn't that why we pay taxes) and to compensate the Government for loss of revenue, adjust the cost of Motor Vehicle registration according to postcade so that users still pay. The difference would be, they would actually use the toll roads instead of the alternative routes.

An added benefit would be massive savings in administration costs.

Admittedly, some people would be paying via higher rego costs (even though they are not regular users of those roads - like me), but overall, a much smoother system.

Cheers,
Roger

Posted by: Roger Shephard at 28-01-2009 08:19

Spit proposals

What has happened to my one-way proposal for Spit Junction?

Posted by: Mark Hetherington at 28-01-2009 09:36

Mark's proposal

Hi Mark
Good point. We sent it to the RTA but did not hear back. Will chase...
cheers
Mike

Posted by: Mike Baird at 28-01-2009 10:16

The ongoing "Spit" nightmare

I'm an Australian citizen, but I was born in a small European country, Portugal.
I'm originally from Porto, the 2nd biggest city in Portugal, that has a population of only 302,500 habitants and the local River Douro passing through. But in spite of being a small city in comparison to Sydney's population, the 2 margins over the river are linked by 7 bridges (some just for rail, but they're mainly for vehicular traffic). There are various options to "spread-out" the traffic throughout them all to avoid the nightmare of traffic congestions. The traffic congestions that we are experiencing on Sydney's Northern Beaches by negotiating an enormous amount of vehicular traffic through 1 single bridge that is also shared with schedules for various opening times throughout the day to cater also to the movement of boats in that part of the harbour.
Why in Sydney, we are so "stucked" in the past in regard to planning traffic control and more options available, by building bridges/tunnels sufficient for the ever increasing population numbers.
Let's look outside for other countries exemples to be followed in regard to updating roads/bridges/tunnels to keep up with the increase of traffic.
Let's plan to build another alternative bridge and if possible also the tunnel. With our local population on the increase, they'll be well used to "spread-out" the traffic through the different options available. Until then there isn't any other option but for everyone to slowly "bottle-neck" through our local nightmare called "Spit".

Posted by: Margarida de Sa'-Sawyer at 28-01-2009 11:58

Tunnel/Bridge Spit

Why incorporate both Tunnel and Bridge when a continuation of the tunnel under the waters at the spit thus doing away with the Spit Bridge could be a better ptoposal. Imperative that what ever is agreed to has a minimum of 4 lanes withwith designated Bus or Light Rail corridor. Design and build for the extreme future not the next 10 years.

Posted by: Daryl Alexander at 28-01-2009 13:00

spit bridge

i hav a brilliant plan for the spit bridge that will cost nowhere near a tunnel or the rta proposal.i spent 13 yars as a government bus driver going over this bridge up to 8 times a da y so i think i am some what of an expert at this link in sydneys road chain .please contact me as i hav hed this plan for over20 years thanku

Posted by: martin eagle at 28-01-2009 20:26

Spit Bridge and buses

I quite agree. As the north East Metro Subregional Strategy notes, "he biggest pressures are on the
following corridors:
� from Mona Vale along Pittwater Road towards Sydney CBD, handling a total daily traffic of 2.7 million passenger kilometres...
Yet the Strategy does not address the pinch point of the Spit Bridge, probably because it marks the boundary of the study area, and
is just too hard a problem. Definitely, the Dept of planning will bring a wider perspective to the issue than the traffic engineers of the RTA.
Regards,
Terry Tredrea

Posted by: Terry Tredrea at 29-01-2009 13:52