Darcy threatens to book state

By JOHN MOYLE

In an audacious move Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne has threatened to send the State Government a bill for $30 million after receiving the findings of the independent report Rat Run Study for five precincts, commissioned by Council.

The report findings state that WestConnex will have an impact on inner west streets and arterial roads next to the motorway, with some expected to experience enormous peak hour increases as early as 2021.

“This report shows that rather than solving traffic congestion in our community, WestConnex will create the mother of all rat runs in many streets across the inner west,” Mayor Byrne said.

In response to Mayor Byrne’s option to send a bill, a Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson said,”The NSW Government is yet to receive advice from Inner West Council regarding their traffic study, funded by rate payers.”

The $16.8 billion and rising WestConnex motorway is a 33 kilometre toll road being billed by State Government as “Australia’s largest infrastructure project”, has much of its construction concentrated in the inner west, which will be further impacted in 2019 when another two stages valued at $33 billion are completed.

These are the construction of the new M4 East tunnels between Homebush and Haberfield and the new M5 tunnels from Kingsgrove to the St Peters Interchange, with both expected to open to traffic by 2019.

Tunnels linking the M4 and M5 make up a third stage of the motorway and is expected to be completed by 2023.

Inner West’s report looked at traffic projections for 2021 and 2031 around all the WestConnex entry and exits and ‘analysed every street in those precincts,’ Ken Welsh, environment and planning, Inner West Council said.

The report found that by 2021 traffic along Barton Street, Haberfield, would increase by an extra 490 vehicles, or 250 per cent.

An additional 400 vehicles in peak hour are expected in Julia and Chandos Street in Ashfield as some of the traffic tries to get on or off the WestConnex tunnels.

By 2031 an extra 300 vehicles are expected to use Northcote Street in Haberfield and Waratah Street, also in Haberfield, would experience a 50 per cent increase to 750.

Roads and Maritime Services dispute that the project will increase traffic and said “Roads and Maritime Services have already carried out detailed traffic modelling which supports building WestConnex.

“It shows WestConnex will help reduce traffic on inner west roads.”

Also in the Inner West Council area, residents of Balmain and Rozelle say that they will also see an increase of traffic onto their side streets as a result of WestConnex construction.

Henry Johnston lives at the Victoria Street end of Lilyfield Road and fears for the future.

“With the onset of WestConnex what we fear is basically a pinch-point on Lilyfield Road
and there will be an upswell of traffic using Lilyfield Road to avoid getting onto WestConnex and paying the toll,” Henry Johnston said.

“Lilyfield Road is going to become a default road to get around it and this whole end of the road is definitely going to become a  rat run.”

Mr Johnston also denies that there has been any traffic modelling done for the area.
“The only modelling we have been informed of was for a bike lane proposed along Lilyfield road that has 1,000 cyclists a day,” he said.

“The whole problem with WestConnex is that there is no real information coming to the citizens of this area, and this has been going on since WestConnex was mooted.”

Another resident voices concerns starting with construction for the Balmain/Rozelle section of WestConnex and the Western Harbour Tunnel approach at the old Tigers football club site that he says will see an increase in the number of trucks in the area.

“The original justification for WestConnex was to take trucks off the road and traffic off local streets, but with over 5,000 trucks a day on Victoria Road over five years during construction is the opposite of what was promised and cars will be forced into rat runs,” Sunil Badami said.

Mr Badami added that the rat runs will also present a danger to children attending Balmain Public School and Rozelle Public School.

Mayor Byrne said “The report shows that a slew of local streets and arterial roads will be overrun with traffic, with some hit by massive traffic increases in peak hour by 2021.

“The study estimates it will cost up to $30 million to put real traffic calming measures into the local area – a drop in the ocean for this $20 billion project.”

The five precincts covered by the Rat Run Study are Ashfield, Haberfield, Leichhardt West, Johnston Street and St Peters.

An Inner West Council spokesperson said rat run mitigation includes footway widenings, pinch points, speed humps, pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes and landscaping.