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

Community values (amenity) – construction impacts
The study area’s amenity would be temporarily affected in certain areas during
construction as a result of:
Temporary noise and vibration impacts on nearby receivers (refer to section
6.2.4)
Temporary visual impacts around each work site (refer to section 6.6.3)
Temporary traffic impacts throughout each work site, across the city and close
to the construction compounds/laydown areas (refer to section 6.1.3)
A slight temporary decrease in air quality due to a temporary increase in traffic
congestion and dust generation (refer to section 6.12.3)
A temporary reduction in the user-enjoyment of public open spaces (refer
subheading ‘community values (open space and heritage values)’ below.
Amenity impacts would vary depending on:
The type, location and exposure of the receiver
The permanency of the receiver during construction (with residents being more
sensitive than commuters)
The degree to which the changes would affect the area’s values and in
particular the sense of enjoyment and functionality provided by these values.
Community values (connectivity and movement) – construction impacts
Pedestrian and road user mobility, connectivity and movement would be temporarily
affected during construction. Whilst access would be maintained, there would be a
requirement to implement temporary traffic and pedestrian restrictions, diversions
and management controls. The most notable effect would be to people who have
specific and routine movements through the city centre (eg commuters and
residents) as they may experience some temporary change to their daily habitats and
travel patterns depending on the proposed construction staging and program.
As the proposal would be constructed across a number of work sites, traffic
conditions and restrictions may change across the city centre on a regular basis;
especially to accommodate peak period traffic (refer to section 6.1.3). This may affect
navigation and ‘way-finding’ for those people that use regular routes throughout the
city centre. It may also affect occasional visitors and tourists who rely on published
(satellite navigation) maps to navigate by. Potential impacts would be most notable
during peak construction (ie when several work sites are being developed at once) as
this is when there would be the greatest number of temporary diversions and
restriction in place around the city centre.
However, whilst such impacts are possible, the proposal to undertake construction
outside of peak periods would allow staging and programming to reduce travel delays
during times of heaviest traffic demand, with no significant impact to the overall
performance of the city centre road network during construction.
The proposal is likely to be constructed whilst the following key city centre events are
taking place which would either conflict with or place an increased demand on city
centre’s roads over the course of the planned construction including the proposal
footprint. Table 6-27 shows the annual calendar of main events that take place in the
city centre that require road closures. The proposal would consider these events to
avoid any conflicts or delays.
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 285
Review of Environmental Factors