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

8 Conclusion
This chapter provides the justification for the proposal taking into account its
biophysical, social and economic impacts, the suitability of the site and whether or
not the proposal is in the public interest. The proposal is also considered in the
context of the objectives of the EP&A Act, including the principles of ecologically
sustainable development (ESD) as defined in schedule 2 of the EP&A Regulation.
8.1 Justification
The proposal’s justification balances the expected long-term benefits against the
temporary environmental and social impacts that would occur during construction
and the effects if the proposal was not implemented.
The proposal would support the reallocation and reprioritisation of traffic and
transport demands that is expected to occur within the city centre over the coming
years, in response to the implementation of the Access Strategy and its supporting
projects, particularly the closure of part of George Street to traffic under the CSELR.
The proposal would achieve this by introducing traffic capacity improvements on
some of the city’s most congested roads and critical intersections. These ‘pinch
points’ are either unable to cope with existing traffic volumes, or they will provide an
essential function in enabling the Access Strategy. The proposal is expected to
generally maintain and in some locations improve road and intersection performance
at these ‘pinch points’ in the future, to enable the city centre to continue to function.
By ‘doing nothing’ congestion would increase across the city centre. This would place
increased demand on some of the city’s most congested roads and intersections.
Doing nothing would not make effective use of the road network, nor would it
introduce the needed increase in capacity at these ‘pinch points’ to enable the
Access Strategy. As such, the city centre road network would be unlikely to continue
to function effectively in the future to support buses, taxies, service and freight
delivery and general traffic
8.1.1 Short-term impacts
As reflected in section 6.16, Roads and Maritime recognises that in order to
implement the proposal there would be some temporary traffic, transport and access
disruption across the city centre during construction. This would include the need for
temporary road and footpath restrictions that would temporarily limit access to
various kerbside allocations, public amenities and off-street parking. It would also
result in short-term temporary amenity impacts due to noise emissions, dust
generation and effects on the streetscape character of each work site.
Such impacts are consistent with similar road development projects in urban areas
and would be safeguard and managed by implementing measures that have been
proven to be effective in reducing the magnitude, extent, duration and scope of the
above impacts. Central to this would be managing and timing the construction work
to minimise the disruption as far as is reasonably and feasibly possible for road
users, adjacent businesses, residents and other affected stakeholders.
The proposal would also be constructed at the same time as several other
developments in the city centre, which would include work on some of the same
streets where improvements would be implemented under this proposal. As such, the
impacts described above have the potential to combine or interact with the impacts
caused by other projects, potentially leading to longer-term disruption in the city
centre than that which would be introduced solely under this proposal.
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement 462
Review of Environmental Factors