Kogarah residents are predicting the four kilometre long tunnels in stage one of the F6 extension will become a parking lot at most times.
Updated plans released last week have done nothing to ease their concerns that President Avenue and surrounding roads will become choked with traffic, affecting traffic flow through the southern entrance and exit.
Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) released the revised project overview in conjunction with Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s announcement the first stage was fully funded and was expected to cost between $2.2 and $2.6 billion.
The tunnels will run from the WestConnex motorway at Arnclffe to President Avenue.
Moorefield Estate F6 Committee spokeswoman Anne Field said members disputed the traffic projections.
“The government argues that it will allow motorists to avoid 23 sets of traffic lights and remove 10,000 vehicles from General Holmes Drive,” she said.
“The mathematics don’t add up when you factor in the additional cars that will come from increased density of new apartment approvals in the south.
“One can only be sceptical that this has been taken into account.”
Ms Field said, when traffic left the tunnel in President Avenue, it would have to disperse back to General Holmes Drive, into O’Connell street or up President Avenue to Princes Highway or Rocky Point Road.
“Traffic congestion will be multiplied,” she said.
“Many of us have travelled in European tunnels, which are certainly not four kilometres in length.
“Residents believe that this short tunnel will in fact be a parking lot of cars for most of the time – traffic will not flow freely.”
Ms Field said residents were also perplexed at how RMS proposed to widen part of President Avenue, along with a possible three metre elevation between O’Connell Street and Civic Avenue.
Light rail would be a better use of the corridor, but had never been considered by “this freeway-driven government,” she said.
Ms Field said the potential impact of tunnel construction on older properties at Rockdale, and the effect on wetlands, were other concerns.
”The exhaust stack is likely to be located in Bermill Street, Rockdale, which is in close proximity to Brighton-Le-Sands Infants and Primary School,” she said.
- Visit: rms.nsw.gov.au/f6
Previous stories:
