City’s main rail corridor plan attracts global developers with big ideas and legacies
The architecture firm behind the world’s tallest building has
signalled it wants to develop Sydney’s main rail corridor, as the state
government fields global interest in a project to remake the central
business district’s southern edge.
Former federal Liberal MP Ross Cameron has also flagged a
bid, after his plan to build more than 150 Chinese-made high rises along
the corridor was rejected last year.
The government will later this year call for expressions of
interest to develop underused rail land from Central Station to
Eveleigh, including apartment and office towers and structures built
over the rail line.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill marketing manager Jayme
Gately, whose American architecture and engineering firm designed
Dubai’s Burj Khalifa building – the world’s tallest – said it was
interested in ”potentially pursuing the project”.
”We believe we could bring highly applicable expertise … we
certainly understand the strategic approach and the necessary public
process for a project such as this,” she said. ”We look forward to
further understanding the project goals and objectives.”
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed central London’s
Broadgate Tower – a 165-metre-high office block suspended over rail
lines at Liverpool Street Station.
It is also devising the central Barangaroo masterplan.
The government has compared its rail corridor plan to
Broadgate, La Grande Arche in Paris, Transbay terminal in San Francisco
and New York’s Manhattan West project.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Broadgate managing partner,
Jeffrey McCarthy, said the London project encountered several challenges
likely to arise in Sydney.
Vibrations from trains must be prevented from travelling to
the buildings above through ”base isolation”. The method is used to
protect buildings from earthquakes and can substantially add to a
project’s cost.
At Broadgate, the construction of columns at track level had
to be co-ordinated with seven different rail companies while maintaining
train services, Mr McCarthy said, adding that buildings and public
space built above the tracks must be carefully integrated with the city
below. But he said the problems ”should not be viewed as a constraint”
and that the government’s plan would ”stitch this part of Sydney
together [and] unlock new economic growth”.
The highly complex construction task has prompted industry
forecasts that buildings of record heights – perhaps up to 90 storeys –
may be required to cover developer costs, and that these must be pushed
through despite community opposition.
A spokeswoman for Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said several
overseas companies had contacted the government to discuss the concept.
The government development agency UrbanGrowth NSW will begin
talks with Australian firms next month, followed by discussions with
international developers.
The plan has echoes of a rejected proposal by Mr Cameron last
year for at least 150 skyscrapers prefabricated in China and erected
from Central Station to Strathfield, which he claimed would have
financed the M4 East motorway.
Mr Cameron said ”you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to
recognise the apparent overlap” between the two concepts, adding that
his Chinese-backed consortium Aspire Sydney was ”seriously
considering” bidding for the project.
His revised proposal would not necessarily include Chinese
labour and materials, he said, saying ”the revenues in the project
would allow an entirely Australian solution at higher cost”.
However, his bid may retain plans for a new port at
Blackwattle Bay and an overhead conveyor system to transport building
materials.
High rises derail hopes of train link to northern beaches: mayor
The prospect of a future train service to the northern
beaches is all but sunk because high-rise development over Chatswood
railway station failed to leave room for extra rail lines, Willoughby
Council says, sending a warning to the state government as it opens
Sydney’s main rail corridor to developers.
The government said this month it would seek bids from around
the world to develop three kilometres of railway corridor from Central
Station to Eveleigh, signalling a crop of high-rise towers and
structures built over rail lines.
But the project faces serious hurdles, not least concerns
that any development could restrict the expansion of Sydney’s overworked
public transport network.
Manhattan West: New York Rail Corridor.
Willoughby mayor Pat Reilly pointed to the outcome of a $360
million redevelopment of Chatswood station, which began in 2005,
including residential towers and a transport interchange.
He said an enclosure built over the rail lines was only wide
enough for four tracks, leaving no room for a rail link to the northern
beaches should a future government pursue that option.
The only alternative is to tunnel under the existing rail
lines, but that would be obstructed by three levels of basement car
parking, which have been sold to developers, Cr Reilly said.
Broadgate Tower: Liverpool Street Station, London.
Residents of Sydney’s northern beaches face long bus journeys
to the city and a rail line has long been suggested as the answer to
the region’s transport woes. The O’Farrell government is instead
investigating a potential bus rapid transit system from the City to Mona
Vale, linking to Chatswood.
However, Cr Reilly said a new bus interchange at Chatswood,
part of the station redevelopment, is already over capacity and it is
”unclear” where extra bus services would be able to stop.
The council’s advice to the previous Labor government on problems at Chatswood ”was eroded down to what we have now”, he said.
Vision: NSW has called for expressions of interest for the renewal of the
railway line corridor between Central Station and Eveleigh that has potential to provide thousands of new homes and jobs. Photo: Supplied
A parliamentary inquiry into building over rail corridors
last year warned a lack of strategic planning could have ”unfortunate
consequences”. It heard evidence from Transport for NSW that a
redevelopment of North Sydney station was hampered by the sale of space
above and around the site, which constrained passenger movement between
platforms and the concourse.
A spokeswoman for Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said a clear
planning framework will be in place ”before any major changes happen”
in the Central Station to Eveleigh project and feedback from industry
and the public would be considered.
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said existing development
near Chatswood station constrained the width of the corridor but it was
wide enough to meet future needs, including integration with the
north-west rail line.