sydney-city-centre-review-of-environmental-factors

1 Introduction
This chapter introduces Roads and Maritime’s proposal and describes the purpose of
the document.
1.1 Proposal identification
Roads and Maritime, in conjunction with Transport for NSW, has developed the
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement Plan. The plan identifies a number of
traffic capacity improvements along some of the Sydney city centre’s most congested
roads and critical intersections. This forms ‘the proposal’ that is assessed in this
report.
The proposal is required in order to enable the city centre road network to continue to
function over the coming years to maintain the operational performance of the road
network to support buses, taxies, service and freight delivery and general traffic,
including during construction and operation of a number of projects proposed under
the Sydney City Centre Access Strategy (the Access Strategy) (Transport for NSW,
2013).
The proposal is separate to other concurrent and enabling works being planned for
the city centre, including for cycleways, buses and light rail. Key government
agencies are working together to deliver and manage the implementation of these
projects (including this proposal) in an integrated manner. This will include the
resulting parking and loading changes, and business and community impacts in
the city centre.
The Access Strategy is ‘the State’s first detailed plan showing how people will enter,
exit and move in and around the central business district (CBD) over the next
20 years’. The Access Strategy seeks to ‘provide clear prioritisation and allocation of
street space in the city centre for light rail, pedestrians and cyclists, private vehicles,
buses, taxies, freight and service vehicles’ and will deliver a fully integrated transport
network in Sydney’s city centre.
Of key relevance to this proposal, the approved CBD and South East Light Rail (the
CSELR) project includes the pedestrianisation of 40 per cent of George Street
between Bathurst Street and Hunter Street. This will displace north-south traffic to
certain critical roads and intersections in the city centre (i.e. pinch points)
The proposal covers 17 ‘pinch point’ locations in the city centre on roads or
intersections that provide an essential function in enabling the Access Strategy. The
proposed improvements would:
Refine the configuration and geometry of certain intersections and roads to
optimise traffic turning movements and through flows
Introduce parking restrictions along certain roads to allow traffic use of these
lanes either during peak periods or all the time
Alter and restrict timed access to a limited number of taxi zones, delivery and
servicing vehicle zones (eg loading zones), authorised vehicle zones (eg mail
zones, work zones) and other authorised parking zones (eg car share spaces,
coach parking spaces)
Reduce footpath widths in certain locations to create additional traffic lanes.
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 1
Review of Environmental Factors