Friday 29th of March 2024

the westCONnex project...

 

south dowling

Infrastructure NSW has suggested a system of distance-based tolling with a cap of about $7 on the WestConnex, as is the case with the M7. But it has also recommended cheaper construction methods than previously proposed for an M4 extension for the inner west.

Yesterday's report argues for a ''slot'' to be carved beneath Parramatta Road for the new motorway, instead of a tunnel.

Infrastructure NSW's vision for Parramatta Road depicts it looking like the Eastern Distributor, with apartment developments hugging a sunken motorway.

The Infrastructure NSW report is unashamedly supportive of more investment in roads, including bus services, rather than rail or other dedicated public transport corridors. The report argues against the idea new motorways create congestion.

Infrastructure NSW's main departure from the Transport for NSW plan is its opposition to another rail crossing for Sydney Harbour, the crucial transport project identified by the Herald's inquiry of 2010.

Mr Baird challenged the federal government to match a promise by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, to commit $1.5 billion to the WestConnex project.


http://smh.drive.com.au/roads-and-traffic/goodbye-parramatta-road--hello-mega-tollway-20121003-26ztx.html
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One has to suddenly stop and seriously think. When's the next load of rubbish going to fall on your lap...?
It is commendable for the Sydney Morning Herald to show some enthusiasm for the (re)development of Parramatta Road... But one needs to be super cautious... This plan or similar have been in the folders of successive NSW governments since the mid 1950s and of course the implementation of such a major undertaking is not without pitfalls... 
We know that should we anticipate trouble too much in advance then nothing ever gets done and we would still be swinging from our tree... 
But when car traffic is involved in the middle of existing urbanisation, things are not as clear as inventing the wheel from scratch. The people involved know that, thus they have to froth up and glorify the dust.

First let's look at the traffic aspect:
More cars are coming onto Sydney's old goat-defined road system... Possibly, the number of cars on Sydney roads is increasing by 10 per cent per year... 
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Question one: Should we encourage or discourage more cars on our roads?
The answer is varied... 
More cars means more pollution and more CO2 released into the atmosphere. More global warming.
More cars means more traffic jams should there even be a small insignificant blockage or too many cars going to the same place.
More cars mean more revenue for RTA, car manufacturers and petrol companies
With the peak-oil (not a furphy as petrol companies are scouring the earth to find more sources of oil) coming soon, is it wise to plan for more traffic?
Better roads lead to better consumption of fuel, but doesn't better road attract more road users?

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Question two: Should one dig a tunnel or have a half tunnel?
Digging a full tunnel from Concord to the City with a branch in Camperdown needs "annoying vents" for the fumes.
A tunnel avoids having to relocate most services that are underground such as gas, electricity, telephones.
A half sunk road would let the fumes into the air which would be very nasty (not much different) should one live in apartment on Parramatta road.
A half sunk road would require relocating the service lines on both side of the street.
A half sunk road needs the destruction and reconstruction of entire housing and shopping streetscape. 

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Question three: How much of historic Parramatta Road should we keep?
The "success story" of South Dowling Street (some morning the road is 3 or 4 kilometres clogged up in traffic jam) cannot be used as a comparison to Parramatta Road. The (re)construction of South Dowling Street is mostly made on empty old factory sites, while the original terrace houses have been kept on the west side. Another expressway, the M5, is already too small and often chockablock with traffic...
South Dowling Street was already a very wide six (8 effective lanes at a pinch) lanes highway with "room to move" on the Moore Park margin. Parramatta Road is a very narrow six lane highway with shops and habitations on both sides.
Presently Parramatta Road looks shabby.
Not because it's crap, but because most buildings lining it are not maintained — all awaiting for the last 70 years for a decision on the matter of what to do with it... 70 years of neglect is not good, though there are many a fine building alongside and large sections of historical significance.

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Question four: Is the future of demolishing everything and rebuilding as rosy as it looks? 
In order to demolish and reconstruct the artery to what is basically an old 1980 blueprint of illusionary comforts, the state government would have to:
buy all premises, shops, houses at least three deep on either side of the road. The first row used to "widen" the road, the second and third row (possibly up to ten row deep in some places) to make it attractive for developers to build new apartments alongside the new streetscape. Thus this would mean the acquisition of ten of thousands of properties at say $500,000 each minimum. The bill, just for this, stands at 5 billion MINIMUM.
Real estate agents cut: 50 mil minimum.

Of course developers would be prepared to buy the space at a discount (50 per cent) but the cost would be another 15 billion worth of reconstruction (good for employment figures) along the stretch from Concord to Camperdown (11 kilometres approx) where basically cars would come to a narrowing of the artery... and jam like never before... Developers LOVE reconstruction...

It appears to me thus that the people to benefit from this would not be motorists, nor the people of new South Wales, nor the people of Sydney but the developers who would charge a premium for rabbit-warren style modern apartments — all consuming mega energy just to keep cool in summer and warm in winter. The energy bill for the construction project would be enormous: demolition is costly. Energy supply companies would rub their hands in anticipation...
This of course would create a long dormitory-corridor with a half-life of "artificial-fake" good-lookingness and a high turnaround of people, who also would need to find ways to commute which would clog up the road and the highway plenty more...
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The recent solution adopted by a city like Madrid was a massive tunnel and a re-landscaping of the former road above into a park-like living space... The solution adopted by a city like Paris 50 years ago was two huge "ring-roads", mostly on piers, that overlook housing below... Not a pretty look, noisy, dusty, smelly. 

The Madrid M30 motorway, the inner ring road of the city, has been at the centre of a major urban renewal project where the motorway has been redirected underground. In 2004 it was determined that the M30 was a 'barrier' to movement in the urban areas it ran through.

Despite its necessity as part of the road infrastructure of Madrid it caused much pollution to the air and also the Manzanares River which it ran close to.

The Madrid Calle 30 project was undertaken to refurbish the road (which is badly in need of structural work) and reroute major sections of it through tunnels under the city areas with which it is associated. This now allows the surface areas that used to be asphalt paved to be redeveloped into green park areas, footpaths, cycle paths and new affordable housing.

While the Madrid City Council has tried to extol the virtues of the environmental benefits of the project, many environmental activists pointed out that although large sections of the M30 will be routed underground, the amount of traffic using it will increase and therefore pollution problems are not just going to go away. The council has countered this by releasing figures of the projected reduction in emissions. It says that between 2007 and 2037 the reduction will increase from 35,000t to 64,800t.

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Boulevard Périphérique (French pronunciation: [bulvaʁ peʁifeʁik]) is a controlled-access dual-carriageway ring road in ParisFrance. One of the busiest highways in Europe, the Périphérique is the generally-accepted boundary between the city proper of Paris and its suburbs. Save for a few exceptions (see Structure and Layout), it is situated along Paris's administrative limit.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_Périphérique

The A86 West Tunnel forms the final link of the 80km A86 ringroad around Greater Paris. Completed in January 2011, the tunnel allows the journey from Malmaison to Versailles to take only ten minutes, rather than 45 minutes.

At a cost of €2.2bn, the A86 West consists of two toll tunnels; one is an innovative 10km double-deck tunnel (duplex motorway) for light vehicles, the other, at 5.5km, is along more traditional lines with just a single deck designed for all vehicles including HGVs.

Started in 1999, the first phase of the project between Rueil-Malmaison and the A13 interchange was due to be opened in October 2007. The second section between Pont Colbert and the A13 interchange was due to open in 2010. The first section, however, opened to traffic in July 2009 and the second section opened in January 2011.


A86 West underground toll road

The A86, including the A86 West, has been built to relieve traffic congestion and improve traffic links between the suburbs of Paris. The completion of an outer ring road is expected to greatly relieve pressure on the existing road infrastructure and guarantee moving traffic.

However, there have been some historical issues which have seen the debate as to how best reach a solution continue for 30 years.

The proposed route for the A86 includes a stretch through the West of Paris; this is a problem area where road building is concerned. A mainly residential area it features some important historical monuments in Versailles and protected woodland areas. After rejecting 22 proposals the A86 West underground solution was accepted as a viable solution.

 

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If one must do something to improve Parramatta road, one needs to find an alternative route, above or below ground.
Then the extra-city character and charm of Parramatta road can be rediscovered, restored and where that character is absent new small hubs can be built as per developer's dream, while minimising overshadowing of existing properties. 
The road improvement would include the redefining of suburbs and improved comforts for their local inhabitants with pedestrian areas, slow traffic lanes, beauty spots, vistas, parks without a sunken highway in between, while retaining the old architecture restored to its "classic" 1900 dimension.
Meanwhile in order to minimise through traffic, tollway should be installed on this rejuvenated road to the same (or higher) amount as for the alternative expressway — except for locals and local deliveries. This would reduce the traffic to a minimum.
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If one needs to create a new artery to let more car traffic into the city, then it has to be a tunnel all the way. This avoids the relocation of all service lines and the destruction of what is an historical roadway despite some ugly newer constructions, mostly from the 1960s... (that tunnel can be used to get new service lines through as well).  Venting and cleaning the air from the tunnel should be done according to proper air quality monitoring. It can be done.

One thing for sure, The Madrid tunnel and the ring roads around Paris make way for go-through or merry-go-round kind of traffic. The Parramatta Road upgrade would only come to a dead-end, Sydney Town, apart from another tunnel (extra $10 billion) diverting some traffic towards and from Botany Bay...In this mega project the cost of which would be most likely $35 billion when finished, tunnelling is the cheapest and the less damaging option, though developers would not get their cut... and by end of project we'll al be driving tiny solar powered cars...
Long dark tunnels could be a problem...
Tony Abbott is an iddiott for promising federal moneys for this half-sunk monster — which at present is designed to benefit DEVELOPERS first and only — once all other factors are weighed in......
Gus Leonisky

 

a half-sunk monster...

 

I grew up in Detroit where the subterranean Davison underpass stretched for a few miles through a residential neighbourhood. It split the social fabric because people could not easily move from one side to the other. One side became a slum.
Planners realised the problems after it was built (in the 1940s):
 1. There was no provision for emergency vehicles to attend fires or accidents;
 2. Large vehicles carrying dangerous cargo were banned from using the underpass;
 3. In a heavy rain it flooded, stopping cars from entering;
 4. Businesses along the Davison underpass suffered, retail dropped and non-consumer companies rented vacant stores at discount prices.
It seems odd that, given all the drawbacks, NSW continues to promote vehicle traffic over public transit.
Has anyone seen how Seattle combines light rail and buses in the same underground terminals, making transfers easy and eliminating surface traffic congestion? They also used trolley buses in the same terminals, which used the same overhead wires as the light rail trains. Engineering genius.
Before committing billions to create more road bottlenecks, planners should devise a shuttle bus system that collects travellers from points near their homes (eliminating the need for huge park-and-ride spaces) and delivers them to a main road bus stop or rail station where high volume equipment can carry them speedily to their city destinations.
Make access to public transport easy and people will use it.
Allan Rodd Tennyson Point

 


Is no one alarmed about the pollution?
Professor Bill Randolph hit the WestConnex nail on the head yesterday by pointing out that ''at the end of the day no one really wants to live on a motorway''. (''Traffic sewer will be no Paris or Barcelona'', October 5).
One reason for this is the pollution spewing from open motorways. The association between vehicle emissions and many adverse health effects is well known, and the World Health Organisation has recently concluded that diesel exhaust causes cancer. Some governments have taken heed of this message. California imposes a 150-metre buffer between freeways and sensitive uses such as schools.
Not so in Australia. Astonishingly the WestConnex plan makes no mention at all of pollution. And it would put a major tunnel portal right beside Fort Street High and Taverners Hill Infants schools.
The plan trumpets the economic benefits of freeing up congestion, but doesn't tally up the long-term health effects, which in the end do impose real cost burdens on all of us.
Tim Stephens Haberfield

I grew up on Parramatta Road so I've experienced firsthand how it is underestimated as a community and neighbourhood when I hand out my address. We are finally seeing independent shops and medium-density apartments revitalise the area and encourage growth and aesthetic improvement after so many years of neglect. Given the current and projected shortage of dwellings in inner Sydney, shouldn't the O'Farrell government be trying to improve pedestrian access on Parramatta Road to foster this, rather than condemning it to being a ghost town forever?
Joanna Lin Annandale

Could someone explain what will happen to the traffic on Parramatta Road while the ''slot'' is being dug? A tunnel is the only answer.
Laurie Urane Haberfield

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/looking-for-the-genie-in-sydneys-bottlenecks-20121005-274x6.html

 

a choker of a CONnex...

 

A PLAN to build motorways across the west, inner west and south of Sydney is a throwback to 1950s transport planning that will quickly lead to congested roads, says one of the state's most respected transport figures.

In rare public comments, the former chief road builder and rail bureaucrat, Ron Christie, has delivered a scathing critique of the plan being proposed by the head of Infrastructure NSW, Nick Greiner, as part of its 20-year strategy for the state released this month.

 

http://smh.drive.com.au/roads-and-traffic/greiners-traffic-plan-a-real-choker-says-expert-20121014-27kyj.html

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I may appear like a novice in this Sydney transport conundrum (see article at top) but I will reveal here that I have studied the problem in detail for at least 17 years. I have gone to the RTA and various councils to see the plans that had been in place since the 1950s about "new roads" and road orders on properties... And basically the "new" greiner plan is the same old stuff with less brickwork and more concrete...

Thus I have my own solutions to solve most of Sydney's transport problem for the better. But then no-one is going to ask me my advice because I am not an "expert" with degrees and/or experience, though my experience in life is PROBLEM SOLVING.

And I still solve problems daily... some are small and medium sized, but there are at least between five and ten major "decisions" to be made and solutions to be found in order to progress, though in the end as every existentialist knows nothing matters... 

But I solve problems... I do... I really do...


To solve Sydney traffic and transport in general, I would start... But I won't tell you... Some "expert" will pinch the idea and claim the success...  Not a piece of cake but a proper solution or sets of small solutions that make the big river so too speak... 

 

 

a train to mumbai...

 

Sydney is the fourth-worst major city in the world for transport and infrastructure, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers says.

In global terms, it would be better taking a train or bus in Mumbai, Moscow, Istanbul, Shanghai or Beijing than travelling here.

In terms of cost of public transport, Sydney came in last: train tickets cost more here than in any other of the world's biggest and most influential cities. The study compared the cost of "the longest mass transit rail trip" within each city's boundaries. The cost of a bus trip was used in those cities without a rail system.

The far-from-flattering assessment of Sydney's public transport system puts it ahead of only Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg for operation and coverage, according to the Cities of Opportunity study.

The accountancy firm ranked 27 of the world's biggest and most influential cities on factors such as quality of life, economic factors, technology and cost of doing business. The assessment of transport and infrastructure included public transport, internal mobility, housing and construction activity.

Sydney was ranked the fourth-worst major city in terms of the "transportation and infrastructure experience for residents and visitors".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/transport-and-infrastructure-better-in-mumbai-than-sydney-pwc-report-20121015-27m08.html#ixzz29Lw37FYr
And please don't tell me I don't know how to fix the problem... but I won't tell you anyway... I know... it's much simpler than it looks... But most of the "experts" have been used to do things a particular way... Place you thinking caps on...

 

tossing money, secretively...

 

THE state government will pay up to $5 million to the losing bidder in the Darling Harbour redevelopment but is resisting calls to make the bid public.
The Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, said the payment was required to restore confidence in ''doing business with government'', which he claimed took a ''king hit'' under the former Labor government.
The payment will be made despite state guidelines for public-private partnerships which say unsuccessful bidders for government projects should not be reimbursed, except in exceptional circumstances.
Last week Lend Lease won the rights to a $2.5 billion remake of Darling Harbour, comprising Australia's largest convention and exhibition space, a new entertainment centre, a 900-room hotel and residential precinct.

The bid beat out the VeNuSW consortium, including Brookfield Multiplex, Plenary Group and Sydney Place Management.
Private companies are not traditionally paid to bid for government projects. However, the government will pay the consortium up to $5 million towards its bid costs, in return for intellectual property rights for the proposal, including designs and the master plan.
It will also pay up to $10 million to each losing bidder in the contest to run Sydney's north-west rail link.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-pays-5m-for-spurned-darling-harbour-designs-20121218-2bl7z.html#ixzz2FX34OqVd


A Darling Harbour redevelopement that only the developers and no one else but Barry O'Feral want... So Barry "is not corrupt" O'Feral has no money in the coffers but acts as if the coffers were filled to the rafters... "Friends, countrymen, developers, lend me your pocket and let me fill them with people's gold..." "and let me add a helipad for a quick get away..." "unless you dash over to Jamie's CASINO and lose a flutter..."

 

a bridge too far...

They think it's a folly. As do thousands in the area who believe the government's proposal will ruin the rare historical appeal of a town square laid out by Governor Lachlan Macquarie more than 200 years ago. ''I think it is all political,'' Mr Wedgwood said this week. ''I think Barry O'Farrell wants to do something for the people of Windsor and this was a proposal that was ready to go and they want to make it happen.''

That Windsor needs a new or upgraded bridge is not in question. The existing one was completed in 1874 and there are few places for motorists to cross the Hawkesbury River around Windsor and nearby Richmond. But how that bridge should be built has split the community near Windsor and its historic Thompson Square.
The government's preferred option was developed before Mr O'Farrell took power. Worked up in 2008, the option is to close the bridge and replace it with a higher concrete structure about 35 metres downstream.
Roads and Maritime Services lodged an environmental impact statement late last year, and approved work could start mid-year. But the campaign against the proposal has only intensified. The group Community Action for Windsor Bridge won more than 12,000 signatures to trigger a debate in Parliament.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-traffic/windsor-bridge-plan-a-political-folly-say-engineers-20130102-2c5j2.html#ixzz2GrC8R7Ii

Read article at top...

planning for the past...

 

Blogger Preston Towers published a fine article on transport in western Sydney this week, in which he points out that the pinch point over James Ruse Drive at Granville was built in 1983, and is only two lanes.

He observes that the current debate between the Gillard and O'Farrell governments about the WestConnex highway upgrade will have little impact on the most pressing issues for the outer west, because what's really required is an integrated urban plan that links up transport routes with the places that people live and work, which are not necessarily aligned in a radial fashion along existing transport spokes.

"The WestConnex will not deliver the clarity and service that it promises to bring. Truck drivers will like it, as will the percentage of people who drive into the city. Such a project, though, will suck money out of the possibility for sensible transport ideas, like the Parramatta Light Rail project, which seeks to develop Parramatta as a viable second CBD and ensure a reliable, standalone system for getting people around that area."

None of this should surprise us. State governments have been on an infrastructure strike since the early 1990s, when the low debt mantra of premiers like Nick Greiner and Jeff Kennett started to take hold.


http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4555876.html
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the whatizname (principle) of uncertainty...
We spend a lot of time organising thingies... From the duodecimal system used in libraries to the elements table of Mendeleev. We have spoon drawers, knives holders on kitchen benches and countless amounts of data written in very specific bundles of algorithms that ether-travel in gigagizmos per second without missing a byte  — otherwise this computer would only be a gigantic heap of floppy gloopcrasp.... 

Amongst all this there is what is known as the uncertainty principle... Applied to what we structure under the uncertainty principle, there is a chance the more we organise something, the less efficiently organised it can become. It's like a rebellion against order...

This sounds contradictory. And it is. As I have mentioned before if someone wants some cheap solutions to the problem of transport between Parramatta and Sydney, talk to me...

I personally use a draw where spoons, knives and forks are mixed... It's a different way to look at things. Same with kitchen utensils... I find it best to access spatulas, kitchen knives and egg slices from the same place in one swoop. It sounds mundane but it is highly scientific and time saving... I only have ONE tall crockery/glass cupboard where everything is seen at a glance, as soon as the full-size door is opened. I dread visiting kitchens where there are a zillion cupboards all neatly designer designed with lovely handles and specifically-purposed. One has to open at least five doors before finding something useful... The trick of the single storage space, of course, has to do with controlling the amount of stuff stuffed within the one cupboard in which shelving is specific but seen at one glance and not to create clutter that goes beyond usefulness... Thus saturated gluttony of thingies acquisition is out of the question. Moderation in the key to usefulness.

I know I have a picture of a rare Banksy stencil which I have wanted to share with you for a while. It's somewhere in my picture files but at this stage, I have not been able to recover it... Once mislabelled or badly labelled, it goes into dark oblivion amongst my 250,000 plus pictures in my various storage disks and the "Finder" of this present machine is as useful as a spoon of sugar in a petrol tank.... You mention what you have at the Apple Store and they break into laughter... I had a car like this once. Go to the mechanics and they would still be laughing at you a week later...
The Banksy used to be stored on floppy 5" and 2", then Zytech glass discs, then Zips and CDs, DVDs, now all the latest files are on five hard drives of gazillionflops... But it's useless to store things if there is no proper filing system, nor an intent to use them ever again — even in a eulogy at at my funeral... 

I often tell myself, I need to reorganise my computer filing system. After ten computer change and countless upgrade, plus generous amount of download of my new daily files (pictures, camera files, rants, artworks), things have a tendency to accumulate faster than the rate of proper duo-classification. In a hurry, one use expedient filing such as date and key words that are soon forgotten despite making an effort to remember. Things are still there, but they lay low like zombies in the dusty megabytes of my computers' history...
The certainty is that I don't know if I still have the file or the picture anyway... I remember seeing it recently, but recently in my ageing mind is as recent as 15 years ago... 

The natural living world is full of uncertainty of course, yet there are many things that are certain. The environmental factors often define the limits of certainty/uncertainty...

And this is where quantum mechanics come in... Presently it is impossible to know where an electron in relation to a nucleus is, but it can be defined with its spin and potential orbit... 

Plants and animals are dependant of conditions within — in which the gene developments have a "time limit" for best performance from seed — while external conditions can interfere with this development... For example, a female kangaroo has the ability to delay the development of foetuses depending on the availability of food... The greater the uncertainty, the greater the delay to a point a which development cannot be arrested or death comes first.

There are plants that will wait for a long (natural rain) wet spell before flowering, while others will flower at anytime some water (including town water) is available and carry mature fruit, unripened fruit and flowers on the same branches. Not fussed. The uncertainty of weather will interfere with plant development on a daily basis... 

We of course know this "development" for ourselves, in regard to our genes and of what we consume... What we eat make us become obese, thin, heart-attack victims or even our lactose tolerance is engrained in our genes that have adapted 10,000 years ago or so. A new study has just shown that microbes have become opportunistic hangers-on on our teeth since humans developed cultivation of plants... Our "self' is no older than 10 years... Most of the part we're made off have been recycled and reconstituted like super market orange juice. Our memory continuum can become flimsy in such (re)flux and things we think happened to us belong to someone else.

In the best of the world, processes would be perfect... Yes the Labor Party is not perfect and seems to have "lost its way"... But has it? As I have mentioned before, the main culprit here is adaptation or lack thereof to changes of humanity's sharing societies versus increasing selfish individuality...
In a country like Australia, this duopoly has shifted through personal comfort and we don't care about the rest in the way we should. The Labor Party has not adapted to this change in which opportunism has replaced opportunity. Nor should it. 

The Labor party has the unenviable task to manage working conditions satisfactorily, business activity in a fair playing field and a sustainable environment.
The Liberals (conservatives) have only one goal in mind: make money. This roughly translates as fuck the workers, fuck the environment and let business rule. Simple certainty, really. 
Amongst all this certainty/uncertainty comes the annoying rituals of "traditions'... In this I place religions and royal families... They certainly make sure they exist though they are anachronisms in the modern context. In order to shake this apple tree, the Labor party should wake up and rattle the possum. Go republic for starters.
Meanwhile, we the individuals (I don't) texting in our car at traffic lights in an interminable traffic jam are bored to tears with promises... but we don't want to pay for a better system... End of the line. Unless a politician on a suicidal mission gives you what you want and then you shoot her... or burn her at the stakes because your brain controller, the media, says so.
Some of the main problems, which forty years ago would have been kosher to push expansion to the hilt, is the issue of peak oil and global warming... Far bigger than our petty transport problems. We might end up on push-bilkes sooner than we think.
Peak oil has slipped quietly under the radar, as new sources of oil have started to be exploited such as shale oil... as well we've see the explosion of gas hubs drilling under farms and under our chairs.
Is it because gas is less whatever than oil? No, more and bigger oil platforms are being built with lesser return but they are still 'profitable" when drilling in places we could not drill before. Some people will claim that this is happening to become energy independent (from the Arab states who have milked us blind for cash — and the US debt is there to prove it) but in reality it's because the oil has peaked... And all the CO2 we've burnt so far is likely to burn our butts with 15 degrees Celsius EXTRA by 2159... But we don't care more than 5 minutes hence, as we have a cuddle with the brats while watching rubbish TeeVee... Bliss plus in air-conditioned lounge rooms.
Thus building new road system for petrol guzzlers is like planning for the past.
Megapolis like Istanbul run on chaos. Chaos loves disorder. This does not mean that results are nil or negative. Results from chaos, including the structure of life, ends up in beauty and organised complexity. Roles and purposes are specific yet adaptation rules the roost, until we all burn out.

We have to be smarter in a chaos flexible sort of ways, while knowing the end games of some stupid solutions — like burning more carbon...

Gus leonisky

 

not only obeid...

Former NSW premier Nick Greiner was "evasive and hostile" when asked to give evidence over his involvement in an elaborate bid-rigging deal between two companies of which he was a director, a federal court judge said.

The two companies are mining services firm Bradken and private equity group CHAMP, a subsidiary of Castle Harlan.

Mr Greiner, the current chair of Infrastructure NSW, and Bradken's managing director, Brian Hodges, were involved in Bradken’s "misleading or deceptive conduct", the judge said.

Mr Greiner, Bradken and Mr Hodges, were last week ordered to pay $21.6 million to Swiss company Pala. The judge found Mr Greiner had used his positions at the two companies to hoodwink Pala into selling its mining-parts manufacturer – Norcast– for less than it was worth.

Mr Greiner was on the board of both Castle Harlan, which purchased Norcast from Pala, and Bradken, which purchased Norcast from Castle Harlan seven hours later.

In reasons for her judgment, which were supressed until now to allow both parties to redact commercially sensitive information, Justice Michelle Gordon said Mr Greiner had intimate knowledge of the deal which resulted in his affiliated firm winning a "fee".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/nick-greiner-entangled-in-deceptive-deal-20130326-2grul.html#ixzz2Od44sc7P

seeing the light in the tunnel...

 


The widely criticised $10 billion plan to create a Paris or Barcelona-like boulevard with a sunken or ''slot'' motorway down the middle of Parramatta Road had been dropped because tunnelling proved cheaper, Roads Minister Duncan Gay confirmed on Sunday.

Mr Gay said that, in the feasibility work now under way, ''the mix of tunnel and slot is favouring tunnel'' for the stretch of motorway from Petersham to the start of the M4 at Strathfield.

Infrastructure NSW, the O'Farrell government's advisory body, promoted the ''slot'' plan last year as a cheaper option than tunnelling.

Mr Gay said market prices for tunnelling had proved to be lower than earlier estimates, so the government could deliver the WestConnex project with more tunnel but still within the target budget of $10 billion-$13 billion. This also meant ''better opportunities to deliver urban renewal along Parramatta Road and other areas''.

Urban Taskforce Australia chief executive Chris Johnson said abandoning the ''slot solution'' was ''great news'' because ''it was always going to be a bit of a disaster''.
''You don't get urban renewal with a 10-lane highway, half sunk, half at street level, ripping through … an urban area,'' he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/parramatta-boulevard-plan-sunk-20130414-2htrr.html#ixzz2QTcKk8Vl

See image and article at top... Remember that the Sydney Morning Herald was showing us the glorious WestCONnex project in full colour... Now the project ends up "widely criticised"... It had to be nipped in the bud as an atrocity similar to the Abbott/Turnbull idiotic fibre to node internet...

 

still in the tar pit...

 

THE Westconnex will be delivered using an ``innovative'' financing plan that will see the State Government join forces with the private sector to make the project a reality.

The State Government would fund the initial sections of the motorway while private sector capital would then be raised against tolls to fund the next phase of motorway construction and future projects.

NSW Treasurer Mike Baird said the new funding plan was an ``exciting new approach'' that drew on ``successful international examples.

The NSW 2013-14 Budget committed $111 million for the 33km motorway.

The NSW Government will allocate its $1.8 billion funding from Restart NSW, the state's new infrastructure fund to finance the WestConnex.

Mr Baird once again criticised the Federal Government's $1.8 billion commitment under the condition that old roads not be subjected to new tolls, which he said made the project ``unaffordable''.

Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said he stood by the conditions imposed by his government.

``It is right for the Federal Government to place common sense conditions on our funding for projects as we have with any future extensions to the M4 and M5,'' Mr Albanese said.

``We are yet to see a detailed business case for this project,'' he said.

The Sydney Motorways Project Office is currently finalising the business case to be delivered to the NSW Government in the coming weeks.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/inner-west/nsw-budget-westconnex/story-fngr8h4f-1226665849628

 

Despite this glowing report by the Inner West Courier — a News Limited  Murdoch local paper, one can see that NOTHING is clear, NOTHING is new in the "method of funding" and the whole destruction/reconstruction of Parramatta Road is still stupid... Read articles from top down...


Meanwhile see how the Inner-West Courier, a Murdoch publication of course,  pushes its agenda not so discreetly, in regard to "that" other issue. The merde-och press is still pushing to destabilise the federal government, because as you know, as soon as Rudd would be "the one", there would have to be election "immediately" as the government would loose the support of the independents... AND LOOSE THE ELECTIONS of course... All this designed to favour little shit himself Mr Abbott Tonicchio... The further away to the election, the more the media and the opposition have to add more bias to the sauce — now way passed the ridiculous... and the more chance Labor can recover... Hence the incessant bombing by the press...

innerwest

 

 

the idiots are at it again...

Dismantling the Sydney Harbour Bridge and floating in a new double-deck version built overseas sounds like a plan hatched over beers at the pub. But one man says it should be reality.

 

Former federal Liberal MP Ross Cameron approached the state government with the radical proposal, which he says would solve Sydney's worst transit ''choke point''.

 

Even better, it could be built using Chinese labour, at a fraction of the cost of the proposed $10 billion second harbour rail crossing, Mr Cameron says.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/visionary-spruiks-floating-bridge-plan-20130629-2p3vc.html#ixzz2XmyAWUao

 

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Where do these libs (CONservatives) get their diploma in major bullshit? What Sewer University do they come from?... This idea is as cloddy and crappy as a blocked dunny... The plan to run an expressway through Newtown as well is totally mad! Tunnel?... So you destroy most of Sydney with a motorway so you can quickly get to... Where?... Sydney where there is of course not enough parking... Parking? 


Please oh please may all the other mad Liberals (Conservatives) not be as mad as these IDIOTS!!!!


Or did I miss I was the first of April?

the best of a silly bad lot...

 

This part of the motorway will cost between $3 billion and $4 billion. Motorists will pay a toll to use it but the amount has not yet been specified.

The tunnel will run under Parramatta Road from the start of the existing M4 at Strathfield to near Wattle Street at Ashfield, where it will have to connect to the City West Link and the eastern section of Parramatta Road to the city.

The tunnel will be dug with three lanes in each direction, making it potentially larger than the four kilometre M5 East. It would require at least one - but probably two - exhaust stacks.


The government received the business case for the entire 33 kilometre WestConnex motorway late last month, but may wait until after the federal election on September 7 before it announces the sequence in which it will build the project.

Fairfax Media can reveal that the business case recommends the first segment should include both the widened M4 from Parramatta to Strathfield, which will have tolls re-introduced on it, and the tunnel from Strathfield to Ashfield.

It also recommends more apartments be built in a high-density corridor above the tunnel, and is said to include plans for an authority to take control of development proposals along Parramatta Road.

Roads Minister Duncan Gay would not confirm the details of the business case, which was worked on by officials from Roads and Maritime Services, as well as advisers from a large number of consulting, finance and construction firms, including Ernst & Young, Macquarie Bank, AECOM, Leighton Contractors and Ferrovial Agroman.

''The details will be revealed when the business case is released after it has been through the cabinet process,'' a spokesman for Mr Gay said on Tuesday.

At 33 kilometres, WestConnex would be the largest motorway project in Australia and one of the biggest transport projects in NSW history.

---

The original plan for the Parramatta Road section of the motorway, released by the former heads of Infrastructure NSW Nick Greiner and Paul Broad in October, was for it to be carved in a ''slot'' within the existing road.

But Fairfax Media has already revealed this proved too difficult, partly because of the cost and disruption of removing utilities and services beneath Parramatta Road.

The government has faced criticism for committing to the WestConnex motorway instead of public transport, not extending the motorway to the trucking hub of Port Botany, and for signing up to the project with neither a detailed business case nor patronage figures. It is understood even when the business case is released, the document will be thin on patronage figures.

 

http://smh.drive.com.au/roads-and-traffic/4b-tunnel-for-inner-west-20130820-2s9f8.html

 

Yes, Gus mentioned the silliness of digging up Parramatta Road before the SMH... Read article at top... And building high density apartments along Parramatta Road is of course going to exacerbate the transport problem by a factor of five... Where are all these people living there going to work? Mostly in the city?... 

 

 

 

kings driving their own cars?... idiot...

 

The NSW government is touting WestConnex as the largest integrated transport project in Australia. Enthusiastic support comes from Treasurer Mike Baird, who proclaims economic benefits, while also advocating for toll roads to encourage private investment in the project. Other proponents assure us that building this 33-kilometre, $11.5 billion road will make the nation richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier.

Surely, with such gains, supporters of sustainable transport systems should be praising the NSW and federal governments for backing this ''21st-century road''.

This is not the case. Earlier this month, more than 100 people gathered at Leichhardt Town Hall to hear public transport experts Michelle Zeibots and Gavin Gatenby point out the many flaws in the shaky case for Australia's most expensive infrastructure project.

Research shows us that in most industrialised cities, including Sydney, car use is declining due to fuel prices and other living pressures, while demand for public transport continues to grow. Sydney is a model example of this shift. So while Prime Minister Tony Abbott believes the ''humblest person is king in his own car'', the evidence says many of us are opting out of this 1950s mindset.

The claim that WestConnex is an integrated transport solution is also deceptive. ''Integrated'' transport can be interpreted as allowing different travel modes to complement each other. A more holistic understanding implies the incorporation of social, economic and environmental elements, and policies to reduce the need for travel and the impact of journeys made.

WestConnex does neither. First, widening the M4 and M5, and building an 8.5-kilometre tunnel, does not enable private transport users to integrate walking, cycling or public transport as part of their journey. Second, it does not meet key environmental, social and economic outcomes. The government's business case executive summary provides no insight into how WestConnex will meet environmental criteria or encourage healthier transport choices.

Perhaps that's because building large motorways increases greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution levels, dependency on fossil fuels and inequitable access to mobility.

The narrow focus of this road strategy is on delivering economic benefits through reducing travel times and cutting congestion. Short-term economic growth is not problematic as one aim of an integrated transport strategy. But it should not stand alone.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/ideology-runs-over-logic-in-the-drive-to-build-westconnex-20131020-2vuv7.html#ixzz2iIQfFTtP

Read article s from top...

 

no plan for the CONnex...

"The phone calls are currently under way," Mr Gay said. "It's a matter of contacting people."

"If you don't get a phone call or don't get a letter, you're not one of the affected ones," he said.

Mr Gay compared the number of properties to be demolished with the more than 800 removed for the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1930s.

"While it is only a small number relative to the size of the project, for the people involved it's not a small issue," the Roads Minister said.

Mr Gay and Mr Goldsmith could not say where the necessary ventilation outlets for the tunnel would be built, but said this would be included in an environmental impact statement for the tunnel to be released late next year.

"On ventilation, we will need up to three ventilation outlets, generally located near the portals, so the entry and exit points of the motorways," Mr Goldsmith said.

Feedback on the design of the tunnel is open until February 2014, but construction is not due to start until mid-2016. Construction on the widening of the existing M4 is to start in early 2015.

Mr Gay also announced the government had started to seek expressions of interest from the construction industry for the widening project.

Greens transport spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi immediately criticised the announcement as more evidence the government was pursuing outdated road-building policies.

“The billions going into Westconnex to build tunnels and acquire homes is billions not going into improving public transport to reduce congestion, make commutes faster and reduce pollution," Dr Faruqi said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-100-properties-to-be-bought-to-make-room-20131128-2ybyc.html#ixzz2lueVAnsB

One should not be too smug should one not get a phone call... The development will affect you even if you're not in the direct pathway of this monster... 

meanwhile in paris, melbourne and the CONnex...

 

Hundreds of police will monitor traffic in Paris on Monday after pollution levels prompted the French government to impose major restrictions.

Only motorists whose cars have odd-numbered registration plates will be allowed to drive.

On Tuesday, if the restrictions remain in place, it will be the turn of those with even-numbered plates.

Ministers acted after air pollution exceeded safe levels for five days running in Paris and surrounding areas.

The smoggy conditions have been caused by a combination of cold nights and warm days, which have prevented pollution from dispersing.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26599010

-------------------------------

Meanwhile in Melbourne , there WAS NOT ENOUGH NOISE!!!:

 

Australian Grand Prix organisers claim their contract may have been breached because the Formula One cars were not loud enough.

The quieter cars, under this season’s new F1 rules, detracted from the “sexiness” of the race and meant Melbourne did not get what it paid for, Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive, Andrew Westacott, says.

Grand Prix chairman, Ron Walker, has already been in discussions with Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone and made it clear organisers are unhappy.

“One aspect of it was just a little bit duller than it’s ever been before and that’s part of the mix and the chemistry that they’re going to have to get right,” Westacott told Fairfax Radio on Monday. “Ron spoke to [Ecclestone] after the race and said the fans don’t like it in the venue.

“We pay for a product, we’ve got contracts in place, we are looking at those very, very seriously because we reckon there has probably been some breaches.”

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/mar/17/formula-one-cars-not-loud-enough-says-australian-grand-prix-organiser

----------------------------

But do not fear, Sydney is on the path for more fumes with added political farts:


 

"The Commonwealth will invest $405 million in the $3 billion NorthConnex to build the missing link between the M1 and M2 motorways to reduce congestion, shorten travel times and improve the safety of our roads.

"Better infrastructure will be the hallmark of the Coalition Government and projects such as NorthConnex and WestConnex are part of a nationwide major roads blueprint."

The project was signed off between the State Government and the former Labor federal government last year, with each committing more than $400 million in funding.

The Federal Opposition's infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese says he was the one to get the agreement with Mr Gay.

"I signed off indeed in the government party room with Duncan Gay on June 21," he said.

"Duncan knows this and he's trying to create a media event for Tony Abbott because Tony Abbott has done nothing new on infrastructure anywhere in the country since he was elected. He is the great pretender."

State Roads minister Duncan Gay says it has taken a partnership with a "grown up" Federal Government to finally bring the project online.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-16/nsw-to-start-work-on-northconnex-tunnel/5324118

 

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Whichever way you turn, the gas guzzling industry is king — the merchant of the centuries... As Tim Flannery explained in his "Conversation with Anne Summers", the petrol companies are afraid of one single word: INNOVATION... Mr Duncan Gray deserved to be floored with an old one two in the gonads for talking about "adult" government... This is political crap going below the belt.

 

See article at top...

 

THE lack of noise being generated by Formula 1's new V6 engines is being made up for by the deafening volume of complaints coming from their detractors, who continue to rail against the lack of decibels being produced by the cars.
 
As Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg came out on top in the first two practice sessions at the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel weighed into the debate, describing the sound of the new engines as "s***" and calling it a "shame".
 
Reflecting on events in Australia a fortnight ago, when he was forced out of the race early, Vettel said: "I was on the pit wall during the race, and it is quieter than in a bar. I think for the fans it is not good. I think F1 has to be spectacular – and the sound is one of the most important things."


Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/formula-1/f1-2014/57898/f1-engines-sound-s-says-vettel-button-weighs#ixzz2xJHveDhm

doubling the con in the westCONnex

 

The state government appears to have quietly doubled its projections for the number of new houses in a major redevelopment of land around Parramatta Road. 

It announced plans in September for areas around Parramatta Road to be overseen by UrbanGrowth NSW, the state-owned development corporation. 

At the time the government hailed its potential to add 25,000 jobs and 25,000 mostly high-rise homes.


But in notes distributed to a closed-door briefing earlier this month, UrbanGrowth was trumpeting a new figure: 50,000 homes and 50,000 jobs. 

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The developer said the numbers were derived from using more long-term projections than the state government’s, which based its estimates over the next two decades. 

But it refused to say how much further these projections would go. However, UrbanGrowth acknowledged plans had widened.

“Further work has obviously been done since September 2013 to examine the capacity of existing infrastructure along the corridor,” a spokeswoman said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/parramatta-road-redevelopment-suddenly-doubled-20140804-zz0ka.html#ixzz39URuy8lV

"further work has ..." WHAT A CON! Read from top...

 

of roads and cycle tracks...

 

In theory, some transport analysts say heavy rail is four times as cost effective as roads when it comes to capital spending.

Last Saturday we explored in broad terms the reasons for the failure of transport policy in properly considering rail, or at least in squaring it with road spending in the long-term policy outlook.

In simple terms there appears to be a culture of priority for road options fostered by the political classes which may stem from the advice presented to government. In short, the fees to be gained by bankers and other advisers are bigger in road than in rail.

Whatever the case, there is an unacceptable secrecy in government planning - which takes the public out of the debate – and is surely to the detriment of the country when it comes to long term public policy planning.

This is evident too in the failure of successive governments to preserve urban corridors, something which had led to the present, egregious billion dollar blow-outs in project costs.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/if-you-thought-using-a-toll-road-was-costly-try-building-one-20140810-102i5o.html#ixzz3A28DmqHw


In many instances the so-called urban corridors are illusions of trying to fit modern day travel in cities that were mostly built in the late 19th century. As well we don't really know what the future bodes in transportation. More cars? more CO2?
There is a point at which the number of access road to the number of access points or targets become stupid. There is no point destroying elegant suburbs, say like Paddington to drive an eight lane highway from Vaucluse. So we go trying to fix the most "urgent" corridors like Parramatta Road with a 1980 solution for a 2014 problem — which by 2020 would be shown to be a mistake. Some of the urban corridors like the Johnston Corridor was going to destroy suburbs (in developers parlance: "revitilise" the places with high rise buildings — increasing the traffic flow on toll roads as well) from Newtown to Annandale and Balmain. 
The need to increase population is a contentious issue by itself but there should be decentralisation in this case. I know people who try to live as close to their work as possible. And the "home office" is not a dirty word. Strangely it is when people are not working but going on an "outing" that the traffic is at its worse. 
In France recently, they had nearly 2000 kilometres of traffic jam, some bad spot being several hundred kilometres long ON AN EXPRESSWAY NETWORK that Australia's road builders still dream about...
More roads? More cars... More problemo...

 

 

Meanwhile in Denmark:

 

 

In Copenhagen, where bicycles outnumber people and nearly 40 percent of residents cycle to work, bike-friendly infrastructure is key.

But, even though more than 200 miles of bike lanes wind throughout Copenhagen, congestion is a common issue. The city is home to the world’s busiest bike lane, on which up to 40,000 cyclists travel daily.

 

The Cykelslangen (soo-cool-klag-en), or Cycle Snake, the city’s newest elevated skyway designed exclusively for cyclists, should help keep bike traffic moving smoothly, Wired reports:

“Underneath, there’s a harbor front, so there are slow moving-pedestrians,” says Mikael Colville-Anderson, CEO of Copanhagenize, a Danish design company. “It wasn’t a smooth commute for the cyclists. The people on bikes want to get home and the pedestrians want to saunter.” Pedestrian-cyclist conflict was never an issue, but cyclists couldn’t pedal at a constant speed, and they had to deal with stairways. The new roadway, which runs one story above the ground, lets them move without interruption. At just over 13 feet wide, there’s plenty of room to pass even a double-wide cargo bike.

At roughly 700 feet long, it will only take most cyclists less than a minute to traverse the Cykelslangen, but props to Copenhagen for building another bike path that’s practical and beautiful to boot.

http://grist.org/list/copenhagens-newest-bike-lane-totally-rules/

and in Seattle:


 

It’s no secret that Seattle is a bike-friendly city, but we have to tip our hats to those cyclists seemingly unphased by the city’s gigantic hills. Now Seattle can add coolest custom-designed bike in the country to its list of things to brag about — and it’s a bicycle made for tackling steep urban inclines, to boot.

On Monday, The Bike Design Project announced that Seattle won gold, beating out teams from urban cycling hubs like New York City, Chicago, Portland, and San Francisco. Voters nationwide chose The Denny, built by Seattle bike builder Taylor Sizemore and a team from Teague, the design consultancy firm behind the Polaroid camera, the Pringles canister, and Boeing jet interiors.

The bike is named for the Denny family that helped settle Seattle, and for the steep street connecting Capitol Hill to downtown Seattle, dreaded by many a cyclist.

Much of The Denny’s design was inspired by a crash Sizemore had biking in downtown Seattle, including its lighting, which includes a broad, icon light below the headboard, turn signals, and built-in red brake lights that illuminate the body of the bike.

read more: http://grist.org/list/this-custom-built-bike-thinks-its-the-coolest-on-the-block-its-right/

 

conservatives giving money to projects without costing...

 

Tony Shepherd, having completed his work heading the Abbott government’s commission of audit and his term as president of the Business Council of Australia, is enthusiastically pursuing his role as chairman of Sydney’s $11.5bn WestConnex road.

It is, he writes in the Daily Telegraph today, the most exciting project he’s ever been involved in: “WestConnex is not just a road. It’s Australia’s largest transport project unlocking $20bn in economic benefits to NSW.”

That $20bn figure comes from the executive summary of the project’s business case released last September.

But the Coalition committed the people of Australia to spending $1.5bn on the road before last year’s election, as part of the prime minister’s promise to be the “infrastructure prime minister” who would “build the roads of the 21st century” and have “cranes over cities” within the year [see article and image at top].

At that time no business case was available. When the government promised WestConnex an additional $2bn loan in the May budget, the federal infrastructure department had not yet checked the business case calculations.

And the full cost-benefit analysis is still not publicly available, on commercial grounds, although some of it has been provided in confidence to the NSW upper house.

On 26 May – well after the extra $2bn concessional loan had been announced in the budget – Senate estimates heard the business case had not yet been provided to Infrastructure Australia, the body specifically charged with assessing and prioritising all federal infrastructure spending. In addition, the federal infrastructure department was asking “a number of questions to seek clarification around the traffic projections and traffic modelling that underpin the WestConnex business case”.

What makes this sequence of events – promise the money first, examine the business case afterwards – so astonishing is that it is precisely what the Coalition promised it would not do and precisely what it has repeatedly been advised not to do.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/13/westconnex-the-115bn-road-paved-with-coalition-gold

 

Of course the Tony Shepherd in this story is the same one appearing at: religious and economic bastardry...

 

The WestCONnex is a grand CON, a way for developers — FRIENDS of the CONservatives — to destroy history and replace it with towers of rabbit warrens and manicured concrete...

nothing more than a tunnel to a traffic jam...

 

The latest proposal for Westconnex is nothing more than a tunnel to a traffic jam.

A traffic jam that has the potential to gridlock cars and trucks from the airport to Parramatta Road and every local street in between.

Last week, the Prime Minister and the NSW Premier hopped in their shiny white cars and went down to St Peters armed with glossy brochures, the obligatory oversized picture dotted with colourful lines and a promise to build a tunnel to St Peters that will dump traffic onto the bottom of King Street and throughout the inner west.

Behind the scenes and away from the cameras, 80 local households were being doorknocked to be told that there house could be acquired.

For those who live in Tempe, St Peters, Alexandria, Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville and beyond, the project has been announced without any information, consultation or basic respect for the communities that are affected by this proposal.

The facts about this latest proposal for Westconnex are this:

This proposal is not backed by a proper traffic analysis.

If the Premier has ever spent any time in and around St Peters he would know that these streets are already gridlocked. King Street, Unwins Bridge Road, May Street and Edgeware Road are at capacity. There is simply no more room.

Carmel Tebbutt fought and won the removal of road reservation along Edgeware Road for the very reason that it was recognised that with Marrickville Metro, St Pius Primary School and a local childcare centre, this road was the wrong place for more traffic.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/westconnex-potholes-in-sydneys-route-to-gridlock-20141109-11j8ho.html#ixzz3IcgZx7kw

 

"improvements" at the stroke of a texta yellow pen...

Roads Minister Duncan Gay this week revealed changes to the third stage of the WestConnex motorway, a tunnel to run under the suburbs of Haberfield, Leichhardt, Annandale, Camperdown, Newtown and Enmore.

The tunnel, slated to be built between 2018 and 2023, is planned to link two other large motorway tunnels – another M5 East tunnel to St Peters in the south, and an extension of the M4 to Haberfield in the north – as part of a series of projects called WestConnex.

Mr Gay called the inner west tunnel the "key" to the whole project.

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The changes mean that rather than travel under Parramatta Road through Haberfield, Leichhardt and Petersham, the tunnel will instead duplicate the City West Link road, which Mr Gay said was at "capacity", before turning south to St Peters.

"It's a sensible route, it overcomes the congested City West Link. It will be underground all the way and won't involve any new residences," the minister said.

The government said the change was not expected to cost more, despite the route growing from about seven kilometres to eight kilometres. Fewer properties would need to be acquired, the government said.

Mr Gay said the change in the route was to allow for a better connection to the motorway's north, with WestConnex now planned to connect directly to the Anzac Bridge and Victoria Road at Rozelle.

"Traffic using WestConnex instead of Parramatta Road will use the same tunnel to get to either Rozelle, Camperdown, the airport, the M5 or any other destination of WestConnex," Mr Gay said in an emailed statement.

"There will still be connections to Parramatta Road at Camperdown, allowing motorists travelling from the west to bypass Parramatta Road."

The new plans, however, were immediately rubbished by the state opposition, who criticised the lack of detail.

"Who says its a better route?" Labor's roads spokesman, Michael Daley, said.

"Where's the detailed analysis? It's a better route because of why? Is it faster, is it cheaper to build, is it more efficient? Is it better for trucks? Who says its a better route?

 "All we have is a line with a texta on a map.

"Mr Gay has confirmed the motorway would not impact on Petersham Park, and the new route would take the tunnels further from the historic park."

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-tunnel-grows-by-a-kilometre-20141201-11xoro.html

 

The improvements sound lovely on a map seen from a zillion miles above the earth... Far more details are needed before any demolition/construction is commenced... But anyway, the Shooters and Fishers Party is presently holding the purse strings and Baird cannot sell the State's assets without its (Shooters and Fishers Party) approval...

they tell you nofin'...

 

Barbecues were planned, shopping centre stalls were booked and staff were rostered on. But weeks before a massive public information campaign on the reinvention of Parramatta Road was due to kick off, Planning Minister Pru Goward apparently intervened to shut it down.

The mysterious move to scrap plans for a three-month information blitz, comprising 170 events, forced bureaucrats to devise what they termed a "survival strategy" to garner public faith in the project.

It has prompted claims the government is keeping the public in the dark over its plans for the congested Sydney eyesore, which is set to be developed once heavy traffic is diverted to the WestConnex motorway.  

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It has also emerged that the wrong map is being displayed at one of the few places the public can view the proposal to build 50,000 apartments in eight suburbs - Homebush, Granville, Auburn, Burwood, Taverners Hill, Kings Bay, Camperdown and Leichhardt.

A broad plan for the project, released in November, shows the population along Parramatta Road is set to skyrocket from 18,000 to 69,700 by 2031. Ms Goward said community feedback would be used to devise a more detailed proposal, which will also involve rapid bus routes, transport interchanges and cycle paths.

Internal documents obtained by NSW Labor show that UrbanGrowth NSW, the government's property development arm, had painstakingly planned a three-month information campaign to mount the case for renewal and gather feedback.

It included shopping centre displays, community stalls, barbecues, workshops with councils and community groups, university lectures and an information kit for schools. In one event, 40 staff members would walk the length of Parramatta Road, distributing information and talking to the public.

The documents show staff were rostered on, deposits for venues had been paid and workshop dates were set. However, the events largely did not eventuate.

A document outlining UrbanGrowth NSW's dramatically reduced public engagement plan, entitled "survival strategy", includes just two information sessions, as well as media coverage and letterbox drops.

Labor's planning spokeswoman and Strathfield candidate Jodi McKay said the government wanted to "keep residents and businesses in the dark".

Labor has previously said the plan fails to detail where new schools, childcare centres, parks and playgrounds would be built to support the development.

"Many residents have no idea of the scale of development planned for Parramatta Road … the community must be genuinely informed and have an opportunity to participate in the process in a meaningful way," Ms McKay said.

"It is staggering that a minister would go to so much effort to oppose genuine consultation with the community".

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/parramatta-road-information-campaign-shut-down-20150130-1302dt.html

 

 

Meanwhile the protests are gathering momentum in Newtown:

 

Go to FaceBook: King Street Crawl: Stop Westconnex (Protest Sunday 1 February 2015 from the Hub, King Street)

and : Reclaim The Streets Sydney

 

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The WestCONnex is a 1980s folly based on 1950s plans. Kill it before it kills you...

small benefit compared to the size of the undertaking...

 

Traffic on Parramatta Road will increase substantially when the $15 billion WestConnex motorway is built, as motorists seek to avoid hefty new tolls.

That is one finding of a new study into the motorway commissioned by the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, who is campaigning hard against the 33-kilometre proposed series of toll roads.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/parramatta-road-traffic-will-increase-under-westconnex-study-shows-20150427-1mueqm.html

 

 

Gus believes that the WestCONnex is not planned for alleviating traffic. The project is pushed to allow DEVELOPERS access to previously untapped "surfaces" — including historical suburbs and rebuild them as "whabbit warrens"... What else is new? 

 

See articles from top.

the smiling assassin...

 

The largest transport project in the country could be shielded from public scrutiny after the government transferred control of the $15.4 billion WestConnex motorway to a "private corporation".

The transfer means information about the Sydney Motorway Corporation, which is now in charge of building the motorway, cannot be captured by freedom of information requests.

The government this month closed the former WestConnex Delivery Authority, and transferred its functions to the Sydney Motorway Corporation, once the organisation solely responsible for financing the road.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/westconnex-shielded-from-scrutiny-after-control-handed-to-private-corporation-20151016-gkapzx.html#ixzz3oi9pvlSO
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Hello?... There are still some people who think that Mike Baird is "nice"... Got news for you: he's a nice little dictator who tells you to shove your democracy up your arse — all with a smile on his face. 
But this is not new. It's likely that Mr Baird and Mr Murdoch made a not so secret pact. Mike has been used as a vehicle to promote the Daily Telegraph and vice verso. We've all see the picture of Mike Baird in company of the designated right-wing (is there any left wing writer there at the tele?) writers such as Mr Bolt, etc. on a train for a Telegraph advertisement. But then one can ask what is the deal? Is there a deal? I have been advised by some very informed dudes in high places that there is a deep deal (unwritten of course) between the Baird Government and the Murdoch press.
So should you be working for the SMH or the Guardian, all you'll be getting is second hand info, crumbs and a huge black wall. You've been advised. I can say a lot more about the purpose of the deal, its purpose, who manipulates who and how far it reaches, but I value my life... and that of my informants.

 

increasing traffic jams by eleven miles...

 

Another nail in the WestConnex coffin

Jacob Saulwick's "More homes in motorway path", March 3, must surely signal the final nail in the coffin that is the WestConnex, the world's most expensive motorway wreaking havoc through Sydney's inner suburbs.

The National Trust calls for a halt to WestConnex, which has been shown to have minimal time-saving advantages for motorists (five minutes) but will inflict maximum damage to the historic environment at a huge cost in dollar terms.

We have been assured that Ashfield Park (1885) and the John Bibb designed 1856 villa house and historic gardens "Yasmar" will no longer be affected by the motorway, but Haberfield, built on the "Yasmar Estate", Australia's first successfully planned "model suburb", will have 61 houses demolished, including 20 individually heritage-listed.

Now we hear of more homes threatened in Rozelle, Lilyfield and Camperdown.

At $30 billion total cost and increasing, this money would be far better spent on public transport to more effectively and efficiently reduce road congestion.

Clive Lucas National Trust president, Sydney


The NSW government is on track to destroy inner city Sydney, and take people's property yet again, for a motorway project that apparently has no benefit other than to justify giving massive amounts of taxpayer's money to road-building companies, and make the outer west even more dependent on the city. There is no coherent business case, a point which has been made many times in this newspaper, and the government does not have a mandate for this development. They have not even waited for the approvals to award the contracts.

Mike Baird and his friends claim that we need to cut expenditures on essentials like our water inspectors while gifting money to business. Is this real democracy in action?

Jon Marshall Lilyfield


The purpose of WestConnex has never been "to provide more road capacity for a growing population" ("WestConnex anger to spread to Rozelle and Camperdown," March 3). It is all about increasing road freight capacity between Port Botany and western Sydney, by driving two more motorways through the heart of the city – even though a simple road or rail freight tunnel would be cheaper and less destructive.

This is why the federal funding application was made under the freight category.

No rational government would spend $17 billion expanding a low capacity transport system to try meeting the mobility needs of a growing and densifying urban population.

Sydney is growing by 84,000 people a year. One motorway can transport maybe 25,000 commuters a day. How many new motorways would we need to open every year?

We can never provide enough road capacity for everyone in a city of five million. It is geometrically impossible.

Chris Standen Transport analyst, The University of Sydney, Darlington


This revenue windfall for the government wouldn't have anything to do with why it has made the new arrangements to access the airport by road so congested, would it? ("State to reap $100m from airport rail line fares, "March 3)

David Sayers Gwandalan


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/perpetrators-must-be-made-to-see-the-blinding-truth-20160303-gn9bh4.html#ixzz41s7VGdCD
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Gus:
The MAIN purpose of the WestCONnex is to demolish suburbs and give the land at a peppercorn price to property developers to build high-rise havens where there used to be pretty little cottages.
As the WestCONnex is built to provide for more cars, the new high-rise monsters increase in population density will of course demand increase usage for the WestCONnex, which will become an immense underground eleven miles traffic jam — even without this increase density.
Don't believe the pretty pictures of "entry points" to the tunnels... These are made to deceive you into the "beauty" of the landscaping and the "flowing traffic". Not far from there, the high rise warrens would tower over old suburbs, in the style of Hong Kong Cellulite... while the entry points traffic would soon be worse than the Warringah Expressway at 9 AM daily.

 

the interchange plan for st peters is a monster...

 

Deep concerns from Sydney residents about WestConnex have again been highlighted in a flood of submissions opposing the second stage of Australia's largest motorway project.

Almost 12,900 submissions from residents, councils and community groups have been lodged in response to the environmental impact statement for a new M5 East tunnel between St Peters and Beverly Hills, in the city's southwest. 

The high number of submissions is only surpassed by those lodged in the 1990s over construction of the M2 motorway in Sydney's north west, which attracted about 14,000.

Known as the New M5 East, the nine-kilometre tunnel project is due to open in 2019 and includes a major interchange at St Peters, in Sydney's inner west.

Almost all of the submissions on the New M5 East were opposed to the $5 billion project, raising concerns that ranged from fears about a drop in air quality to congestion on suburban roads from vehicles that wanted to avoid the tolled motorway. 

In their submissions, Canterbury, Hurstville and Rockdale councils voiced concerns that the ventilation system for the New M5 would be inadequate to ensure air quality in the tunnels and for residents who lived near emission stacks. 

Leichhardt and City of Sydney councils, both of which have been among the most vocal opponents of WestConnex, again cast doubt on the traffic forecasts for the roadway project.

"The traffic modelling ... may significantly underestimate future traffic volumes and congestion that will be experienced in the 2021 and 2031 scenarios," Leichhardt Council said in its submission.

The City of Sydney said the traffic modelling was "inadequate and shows that the New M5 is unlikely to carry enough traffic to make it worthwhile, yet will deliver massive increases of traffic on to local streets".

The WestConnex project comprises three sections: the new M5 East tunnel; a widened M4 motorway and new M4 East tunnels; and a new M4-M5 tunnel linking the two. Giant boring machine are due to begin work on the 30-metre wide tunnels for the M4 East by the middle of this year

In its entirety, the new $16.8 billion motorway will stretch for 33km. The project relies on funding from the state and federal governments, as well as on tolls from motorists when it eventually opens to traffic.

The state's chief scientist has recommended a worst-case scenario be developed for the New M5 East project to show the impact that changes to tolls will have on air quality in nearby suburbs should motorists opt for alternative roads.

"It is reasonable for affected residents in Bexley to ask what would happen if there was more toll avoidance than has been predicted for this [environmental impact statement]," the submission from the chief scientist's office said. 

The Heritage Council also reiterated concerns that "urban design options" had not been fully explored.

Last last year almost 4800 submissions were lodged in response to the plans for the M4 East motorway tunnel from Concord to Haberfield, which is the first stage of WestConnex.

That is fewer than the 7968 submissions lodged in response to the original M5 East motorway in the 1990s, NSW Planning figures show. But it still dwarfs the 2762 submissions on Sydney's Eastern Distributor, the 340 on the Lane Cove Tunnel or the 196 on the Cross City Tunnel.  

A spokeswoman for NSW Planning said a number of submissions on the New M5 East were received multiple times due to systems errors or people submitting more than one.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-residents-vent-opposition-to-westconnex-in-flood-of-submissions-20160322-gno63c.html#ixzz43hQFyJNu 
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The interchange for St Peters is A MONSTER and the artistic impression does not show the ongoing traffic jams that will ensue from the interchange in roads like King Street, McAvoy Road and the likes... Should making a tunnel be "essential", make it go into Botany Bay, directly to the truck/container area... and joining a new interchange at the airport. The airport traffic is presently a disgrace due to access road and car park restrictions/access which make Sydney airport access the joke of the world. 

 

pain, less pain...

 

Responding to scepticism about how the new tunnel could be build at no extra cost, the Roads Minister said there were significant savings from building a less complicated interchange at Rozelle.

"The fact that we have been able to remove the complexity of what we are doing in the interchange by coming in lower, instead of having a spaghetti junction above ground ... has given us a better outcome," Mr Gay said.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/new-tunnel-under-victoria-road-added-to-westconnex-at-no-extra-cost-government-says-20160721-gqart9.html

 

 

This "new" solution is the Madrid solution (read articles at top)... I suspect this solution was already in the books but in order to make it palatable (less pain) the ugliest spaghetti solution was presented first... Now to the Newtown interchange...

 

And I forgot... MAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT FREE and improved. save everyone from marking around and trying to fudge the opal cards.

the northCONnex...

 

The New South Wales Government has plans to build pollution ventilation shafts in Sydney's north shore and northern beaches areas, as part of the multi-billion-dollar Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link project.

Shafts between 20 and 35 metres high will be constructed near schools and homes, to disperse the fumes from thousands of trucks and cars expected to access the new underground toll-road.

A planning document marked "cabinet-in-confidence", seen by ABC News and Fairfax, pinpoints the locations of the shafts and maps the air quality impact zones surrounding them.

It also red-flags political issues that could anger local residents and "impose significant project risk".

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-17/pollution-ventilation-shafts-for-w...

 

Meanwhile no exhaust towers locations have been revealed for the WestCONnex... Be prepared for mucho crap in the the inner west... By the way the master plan is being enacted without the public being told anything...

 

westCONx...

westCONxA new publication has hit the street... BOTTLENECK!

please visit:

http://rozelleagainstwestconnex.org/

 

Sydney’s future: Concrete, asphalt and steel as greed overwhelms public benefitSeptember 27, 2017 The Sydney Morning Herald  23 SEPTEMBER 2017 Elizabeth FarrellyElizabeth Farrelly

“We’re building Sydney’s future!” declare the hoardings. And they’re right. That’s what scares me. For it’s a future that reduces this intricate and leafy heart of old Sydney to a concrete-and-steel cacophony; fast, featureless and corporate-minded. In a word, grey. Much of Sydney is naturally blessed but this historic core is unique as a made thing. It can never be recreated. Inner Sydney is ours to share and treasure. Destroying it is not forgivable.

The hoardings in question enclose the light-rail construction site, but it’s not small, and it’s not temporary. It’s not breaking eggs to make omelet. It’s breaking eggs to funnel public assets permanently into private coffers, draining the city of its texture, lifeblood and sweetness. Protest, and they fence you in, arrest you and fine you thousands. Are we still calling this a democracy?

read more:

http://rozelleagainstwestconnex.org/sydneys-future-concrete-asphalt-and-...

 

READ FROM TOP. FIRST westCONnex POSTED IN 2012

 

westCONx CONtrol CONsortium lone CONstructor....

 

Berejiklian denies involvement in WestConnex lease deal

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been referred to ICAC over a decision to grant a 20-year lease extension on government-owned land without going to public tender.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/state-rejects-only-bidder-for-construction-of-...

 

See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31736

 

blowing up...

Residents in Sydney's inner west have been shocked to learn rocky ground beneath their suburb will be blown apart after construction crews hit hard sandstone while carving tunnels for the WestConnex motorway.

Annandale resident Ian Carmichael was this week letterboxed about the one-day rock blasting trial scheduled next Monday as work forges ahead on the $16.8 billion motorway's underground M4-M5 Link between Haberfield and St Peters.

"They dumped this surprise on us with six days' notice," Mr Carmichael said.

"They're making progress with the roadheaders they've used to excavate so far. They don't have to put dynamite under 100-year-old homes."


Three "small-scale controlled blasts" will be conducted beneath Reserve Street in Annandale to test whether the method should be used along the tunnelling route from Annandale Street to Catherine Street in Leichhardt.

Rosemarie Gates lives on Emma Street in Leichhardt, which lies within that section of the route. She is worried blasting parts of the tunnel bound for 24 metres beneath her property would damage the 100-year-old house.

"Tunnelling is bad enough, but to have rock blasting is insult to injury," she said.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/residents-blow-up-over-westconnex-plan-to-blast-rocks-beneath-homes-20200722-p55ee7.html

 

Read from top.