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

the proposed Sydney City Centre Cycleways project. Of critical relevance to this
proposal, the CSELR includes the proposal to allow local property access along
George Street between Bathurst and Hunter streets, and to pedestrianise this zone.
To facilitate the changes proposed in the Access Strategy, traffic capacity
improvements would be required on a number of roads and intersections within the
city centre. Some of these locations are either already at capacity with existing traffic
volumes and/or they provide an essential function in enabling the above projects
(refer section 2.2).
In summary, traffic capacity improvements are needed at several critical roads and
intersections in the city centre in order to:
Allow the city centre road network to continue to function in response to
anticipated changes in traffic demands, traffic priorities and travel patterns,
including during construction and operation of the Access Strategy projects
Maintain the operational performance of the road network to support buses,
taxies, service and freight delivery and general traffic
In support of the Access Strategy principles, to clearly prioritise these roads for
traffic.
Proposal objectives
The overall objective of the proposal is to support the growing demand for access
into the Sydney city centre and to improve road network functionality over the coming
years, including during construction and operation of a number of projects proposed
under the Access Strategy.
Supporting proposal objectives are to:
Support the reallocated demand for access through improved key corridor and
intersection capacity
Support more efficient road usage to accommodate Sydney’s future growth
demand
Improve road efficiency and allow quality integrated public transport services to
meet future demand
Improve customer experience by improving the safety, amenity and efficiency
of the road network
Minimise environmental and socioeconomic impacts on Sydney city centre and
on current business operations.
Options considered
The proposal was first identified in 2013 as a delivery initiative of the Access
Strategy. The focus was to identify those city centre roads that were at or above
capacity (ie pinch points) and to develop traffic efficiencies to improve road network
functionality over the coming years. The proposal concept design was subsequently
developed through four key stages:
Stage 1, which considered the strategy of ‘doing nothing’ and ‘doing something’
Stage 2, which identified the pinch points within the city centre road network
that are and/or are predicted to be at or above capacity; and clarified which
roads need improvements (ie work site locations)
Stage 3, which identified the required traffic capacity improvements at each
work site location
Stage 4, which developed feasibility design options to achieve the
improvements at each location and an assessment of the options to select a
preferred option.
Sydney City Centre Capacity Improvement Plan
Review of Environmental Factors
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