Beaches Link Community Update
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November 2019 Beaches Link Community Update The Western Harbour Tunnel and We expect to have the Beaches Link EIS available for public exhibition from mid-2020. Beaches Link program is an important You will have another opportunity during this part of our vision to create an exhibition process to provide your valuable feedback and we encourage you to have your integrated road and public transport say during this time. network, balancing the needs of motorists and local communities. Western Harbour Tunnel The program consists of: and the Warringah Freeway • Western Harbour Tunnel which stretches from the Upgrade Warringah Freeway at Cammeray, across Sydney Following consideration of your feedback, we Harbour, to the WestConnex interchange at Rozelle. have prepared a detailed EIS for Western Harbour Tunnel and Warringah Freeway Upgrade. • Beaches Link which provides an alternative to the Spit Bridge and Military Road for the Northern We expect the Department of Planning, Industry Beaches, connecting through to the Warringah and Environment (DPIE) to place this EIS on public Freeway and Gore Hill Freeway. exhibition for your important feedback in early We will also be upgrading the connection point of the 2020. Our commitment is for the public exhibition two tunnels, the Warringah Freeway. Since mid-2018 period to be at least six weeks to allow more time we have been in a process of community consultation for you to review the information, ask questions of on the Proposed Reference Designs for these projects. our project team and make a submission to DPIE. If you would like to be notified once the EIS is on display, and you do not currently receive project Beaches Link updates, please call or email us with your details so We have now updated the Proposed Reference Design you can be kept up to date. for Beaches Link. This includes a number of key construction sites and design features of the project, including: B Line and bus commuters to • Flat Rock Drive temporary tunnelling site interchange with Sydney Metro • Wakehurst Parkway temporary tunnelling site and Sydney Trains • a refined construction site layout and access road alignment at Balgowlah. More information on these elements is available in this brochure. Because of these changes, it will take us more time to finalise the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Save time on for public exhibition. This will allow us to complete the your journeys necessary investigations and assessment work, and prepare the appropriate documentation. Wheeler Heights Collaroy Plateau Oxford Falls Project benefits opportunities for Beaches Link is an integrated express transport solution that will improve buses car and bus journey times to and Manly and Northern Beaches from the Northern Beaches. It will also provide new connections to St Leonards St Leonards and Macquarie Park Northern North Sydney Beaches linking people with jobs, education Hospital City and services. Brookvale Less trafc on North Shore roads Spit Bridge – 40% less Connecting More reliable Roseville Bridge – 25% less Wakehurst Eastern Valley Way – 35% less the Northern North Shore trips Parkway Military Road – 15% less Beaches, south • reduced pressure on key main roads – Military Road and west and Warringah Road • bypassing 19 sets of traffic • greater resilience lights through to incidents and delays The Spit, Mosman and North Balgowlah Neutral Bay • reduced rat-run traffic on local roads – Eastern Valley • improved connections Way, Frenchs Forest Road to North Sydney and and Ourimbah Road. Sydney CBD Seaforth Manly Sydney Road • new connections to St Leonards and Macquarie Park • access to motorway Spit Bridge network for faster journeys across Sydney. New public Artarmon transport options Northbridge • operation of express bus Gore Hill services on Beaches Link Freeway to Sydney CBD and North Sydney Returning • direct access to North streets to local Sydney for interchange Miller St with the new Sydney Metro Cammeray communities Ernest St and Sydney Trains Falcon St • less rat-running through local streets • faster, more reliable bus trips on Military Road and • reduced traffic on Warringah Road. arterial corridors. Watsons Bay Better access to jobs New Travel time and business savings community Sydney Brookvale to Sydney CBD • over 15Birchgrove per cent more NorthernHarbour open space Bridge up to 27 minutes Beaches residents will be within • opportunity forVaucluse new open 45 minutes of a commute to work Sydney Harbour Dee Why to Sydney Kingsford space at the Balgowlah • local NorthernBalmain Beaches Smith Airport Golf Course site up to 56 minutes businesses will benefit from • new shared path along better access to Greater Sydney Frenchs Forest to Rozelle the Wakehurst Parkway, • more direct access will be up to 54 minutes connecting Seaforth with available for movement of the Northern Beaches goods and services. Manly to Macquarie Park Hospital precinct. up to 32 minutes Balgowlah Sydne y Road A c c es s R oad Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation Balgowlah site post construction once fully grown. Indicative layout only – subject to consultation. Maximising open space Minimising our construction We recognise that providing you with the maximum impacts for your community amount of open space once construction is complete You told us the Scout Hall and Balgowlah Oval are is important to you. We have worked with the important. These facilities will not be impacted by community on a number of alternatives to connect our project. Beaches Link with Sydney Road, to identify a solution that provides the best outcome for the community We’ll be directly accessing the main road network to while ensuring our road network operates as efficiently remove tunnel spoil, minimising impacts to local roads. and safely as possible. We won’t be transporting spoil through local streets in Balgowlah. As a result, we’ve designed a permanent access road on the western side of the new recreational precinct We will only be removing trees where doing for locals to access the new facilities. This has allowed so is unavoidably required to deliver the project. We us to maximise the open space we’re returning to are committed to offsetting any trees we remove. the community. Working with the Northern Beaches We’ll also be reusing rock excavated from the tunnel Council, we’ll be returning almost 90 per cent of the to adjust the levels of the land on the site to allow the open space we will use during construction as sporting sporting facilities to be provided. This allows us to: and recreational facilities. We plan to have the majority of the recreational precinct open for the community to • reuse tunnel spoil locally use around two years after we start construction, three • significantly reduce the number of heavy vehicles years earlier than we originally planned. entering and exiting the site during the first year of Residents in Manly, Fairlight, Seaforth and North construction. Balgowlah will also benefit from the new access road You will have a say in the final layout of the sporting as it will make it easier and faster to access the new and recreational facilities, which is expected to be led Beaches Link Tunnel. by Northern Beaches Council at a later date. Save up to 32 minutes Manly to Macquarie Park Temporary Naremburn / Willoughby construction site We need a temporary construction site that provides us with access to the middle section of the tunnel, which is in the Naremburn /Willoughby area. This is so we can safely and efficiently construct the tunnel. Because of the size and scale of the project, it is simply not practical to only undertake tunnelling from just the end points of the project. Flat Rock Drive site access In July 2018, we released a Proposed Reference Design for the Beaches Link, which identified two options for Excavation of driven tunnel a temporary intermediate tunnel construction site on Flat Rock Drive at Naremburn: Flat Rock Reserve • ‘Option A’, at the site of the current Flat Rock Baseball Diamond Flat Rock Baseball Flat Rock Drive • ‘Option B’, a re-vegetated area on the eastern side Diamond construction F l of Flat Rock Drive. a t support site R o c k N We have heard your concerns about these sites and D r i Flat Rock Creek v we have taken the time to investigate a number of e alternative options. Naremburn 0 50 m We already have a construction site at Artarmon and we will be doing some tunnelling from this site. Work from this end however will be limited by a number of You told us you value open space and technical constraints. sporting precincts. Using this site will mean a greater distance between the site and the We need a temporary construction site that provides us with access to the middle section of the project. sporting facilities and we won’t be impacting Without it, it would be like trying to renovate a house Willoughby Leisure Centre indoor facilities, with the only access being through the front door. netball courts or car park. It will also avoid the need to acquire residential Preferred location property or impact the baseball diamond, and provides trucks with direct access to and from the Following extensive assessment of these options site via a main road. and consideration of community feedback and other impacts, we have selected the area on the eastern side of Flat Rock Drive (Option B) as the preferred Activity on the site location for the temporary tunnel site, to remove The site will be set up as a construction site and the spoil from the tunnel and provide access for plant, majority of the tunnelling work will take place up to equipment and workers. 20 storeys underground, with the access ramp designed to minimise disturbance of former landfill. Visualisation of the Naremburn/Willoughby construction site from Flat Rock Drive looking south.