The NSW Transport Asset Holding Entity is in the
process of selling another major building on the South side, The Large Erecting
Shop, to Mirvac for redevelopment as well as putting forward its Paint Shop
Precinct master plan. So with interests on both sides where such a bridge would land
you would expect such a bridge would be in scope for the redevelopment of the
precinct. But no, it is not in either planning proposal. The North Eveleigh
documents say “Detailed consideration is outside the project scope and does not
have NSW Government funding”.
So bottom line – it is possible but the NSW
Transport Asset Holding Entity is not paying for it out of what they will make
from the redevelopment of the two sites they are selling. If the community does
not get an undertaking with these developments to build the bridge then its
chances of ever seeing a bridge seem bleak.
Rob Stokes who launched the proposal is also the
Minister responsible for Infrastructure and for Active Transport, he needs
to explain how this essential community infrastructure can be delivered. Until
we have an answer to that question it is hard to see how the community can
support the North Eveleigh proposal without the connection the community has
been asking for, irrespective of how the rest of the proposal stacks up. Such a
connection was proposed by the RWA as an essential element in bridging the
barrier caused by the railway corridor.
In this article by Geoff Turnbull in South Sydney Herald What a difference a bridge would make he estimated it would save 15 minutes each way on walking via Redfern Station’s new Southern Concourse if the bridge between Carriageworks and South Eveleigh was built. A community campaign for a bridge has been underway for a long time with a petition.
Another example of a problem of TfNSW’s
disconnected planning is that during the work on turning Little Eveleigh Street into a shared road to funnel students towards Sydney University REDWatch kept raising the potential conflict of traffic from the North Eveleigh
redevelopment with the new pedestrian path to Sydney University. This was out
of scope in that conversation.
The master plan for the paint shop precinct has a main road entrance to the site extending
Shepherd Street into North Eveleigh. This is a steep entrance given the height difference between Wilson Street and the first intersection proposed
on the site. The problems with this entrance was a documented issue in the 2008 proposal for North
Eveleigh. The Masterplan also proposes a one-way road that services the eastern
portion of the site which exits into Little Eveleigh Street, across the University pedestrian traffic, and down Ivy Lane
onto Lawson Street. The Ivy Lane – Lawson Street intersection has always been problematic for right turns as it is very near near the Abercrombie Street
lights where there is a right arrow slip stream from Abercrombie into Lawson. So now we can talk about the clash between car and pedestrians the Southern Concourse path to Sydney
University is locked in!
Planning for the site
has to be integrated and look at connectivity across the whole area not just
deal with redevelopment bit by bit. As a major piece in the puzzle this
exhibition has to address the wider connectivity problems including a bridge across the railway corridor at Carriageworks.