More WestConnex construction disruptions

[find_bruce]

The next stage of WestConnex construction is about to begin and looks like it will have even greater impact on cyclists that previous work - is the M4 path ride-able yet ? When exactly will the M2 be available again ?

Given the generally poor thought that goes into alternative routes, I thought I'd start a thread to deal with the next stages of construction when the work will happen, the extent of the disruption and the best alternatives.

The area I am most familiar with is Rozelle where signs have started to go up about the work.

They don't like to give much warning, but the work is slated to commence in 2019. It looks like for the duration of construction the eastern end of the new Iron Cove bridge will have a diversion & will no longer have access to Victoria Rd. It is hard to find information, but it seems the official diversion goes through the Manning St car park - which will become a construction car park, through some back streets to Moodie St. Unfortunately this has some short sharp hills as well as narrow streets so its not particularly suitable.

The northern side across the old Iron Cove bridge looks like it will be unaffected, but still has the longstanding hazards of the narrow passage & congestion around the bus stop, and drivers failing to give way entering or leaving the petrol stations - its not too bad when going slowly uphill but no way I want to go downhill there.

So it looks like when heading into the city I will either go up to Darling St via the Sydney College of the Arts or use the old Iron Cove Bridge.

Heading out of the city I usually ride down Victoria Rd & think I will probably keep doing that & as I can't join the bay run I will just stay on the road until I get to the far side of the bridge

[g-boaf]

The next stage of WestConnex construction is about to begin and looks like it will have even greater impact on cyclists that previous work - is the M4 path ride-able yet ?

The M4 path is open - I rode on it Thursday night. And I use parts of it every morning and afternoon on my commute ride.

I cannot speak for going further into the city, I no longer work in the CBD.

[SteveTheTiger]

The full length of the M5 Linear Park Shared Path is open from Salt Pan Creek east to Bexley Road.
Cyclists may use the M5 emergency shoulders only from Belmore Road heading West, due to construction of the Belmore Road ramps and WestCONnex ( the new M5).

[mikesbytes]

The first bit of Westconnex is open and the result of not catering for the traffic inducement was clear today. I drove east on Parramatta rd at 11.30am this Saturday morning, I drive I do every week and the traffic jam to turn right into the Hume Hwy backed up almost into the tunnel. Further down where I turn right into Petersham at the bottom of Tavenders hill, the queue to turn right was 3 times the length I normally encounter. Tavenders hill itself had the traffic backed up all the way to the bottom of the hill

[roberto73]

Anyone tried the bicycle detour off the M4 shoulder and through the underpass of Homebush Drive, rejoining the M4 on the other side? You know, the underpass used by buses when there are events at Oly Park.

[roberto73]

The area I am most familiar with is Rozelle where signs have started to go up about the work.

They don't like to give much warning, but the work is slated to commence in 2019. It looks like for the duration of construction the eastern end of the new Iron Cove bridge will have a diversion & will no longer have access to Victoria Rd. It is hard to find information, but it seems the official diversion goes through the Manning St car park - which will become a construction car park, through some back streets to Moodie St. Unfortunately this has some short sharp hills as well as narrow streets so its not particularly suitable.

The northern side across the old Iron Cove bridge looks like it will be unaffected, but still has the longstanding hazards of the narrow passage & congestion around the bus stop, and drivers failing to give way entering or leaving the petrol stations - its not too bad when going slowly uphill but no way I want to go downhill there.

So it looks like when heading into the city I will either go up to Darling St via the Sydney College of the Arts or use the old Iron Cove Bridge.

Heading out of the city I usually ride down Victoria Rd & think I will probably keep doing that & as I can't join the bay run I will just stay on the road until I get to the far side of the bridge

That about sums it up. John Holland says construction blocking the shared path between Byrne St and Springside St will start in October. I guess some riders might divert through Callan Park up the steep little bit on the north side of the College of Arts ( which is closing btw) and come out at Cecily St gate. Or do Manning/Moodie/Waterloo/Darling etc.

The footbridge over Vic Rd at Lilyfield Rd is being demolished in early 2020, so more detours for that. And the other footbridge is going later in 2020, cutting access from Annandale. A detour down James Craig Rd, under Anzac Bridge, and up to the Digger seems likely.

You can contact John Holland, the contractors, at their site office at corner of Gordon St and Lilyfield Rd, and ask them about all the detours and temporary routes etc. Theysaid they will release full details in August. It’s gonna be messy!

[find_bruce]

Thanks Bob - seems like there will be no good way, just degrees of bad

[find_bruce]

The closure of the path on Victoria Rd from the Bay Run happened yesterday. Numbat traffic controller was directing people in a different direction from the official detour - telling people they had to cross Victoria Rd at the 4 minute wait for the Terry St pedestrian lights.

[mikesbytes]

[roberto73]

Any further reports on the detours? I should go over one morning and see where people are going, how many using the old IC Bridge etc.

[find_bruce]

Any further reports on the detours? I should go over one morning and see where people are going, how many using the old IC Bridge etc.

Anecdotally, changes don't seem to be having much effect on cyclists yet. The re-opened the Victoria Rd footpath & are yet to close access to the overpass or Beatrice Bush bridge. Biggest disruption I have seen is the works along lilifield rd with lights & a boom gate.

No doubt we have more joy to come.

Someone posted small signs on the overpass encouraging people to ask how they were going to get to work once the overpass is demolished, but they got torn down a couple of days later.

[mikesbytes]

https://www.westconnex.com.au/sites/def ... %20web.pdf

[roberto73]

The boom gates are a pain for cyclists. They could remove parking on the southern side to create a bypass for cyclists. Seems most of that parking is for the workers who run the boom gates! The rough fill of the cable trench isn’t helping either. JH say it won’t be “made good” (put back to something like original condition)until next year. So you need to ride well out and then motorists of course get impatient. I have observed some bad overtaking.

[roberto73]

Detour routes as proposed by John Holland. This was semi leaked to us, they haven’t said it’s final but they are aware that it’s not great in several aspects.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... V1sz8PtLXE

But if you are using the shared path on Victoria Rd to get on to the ramp to Anzac Bridge it looks like only being closed during May to August 2020.

Also a video on BNSW site of cars clogging the crossing at city end of Victoria Rd, and a petition to sign. https://bicyclensw.org.au/a-better-bike ... r-rozelle/

[roberto73]

News on the Lilyfield footbridge, its closing on 8 March. Demolition 21/22 March, plus demolition of the ramp off Victoria Rd towards Anzac Bridge. Story at http://www.sydneycyclist.com/forum/topi ... ictoria-rd

[mikesbytes]

I have doubts as to how many will ride up Gordon st, especially as they rejected putting in an uphill cycling lane

[familyguy]

I just looked at it on the street view. The hill seems ok but it's real narrow. Not great for those using the infra because they are not confident/happy to use the road for certain stretches. Does anyone in TfNSW use their brain?

[find_bruce]

Thanks Bob,

I ride in the bus lane on Victoria Road from Darling Street and briefly thought about staying in the bus lane up the bridge to the statues, but remembered the merge with city west link traffic.

Looks like I will be switching to Parramatta Rd for the quick route and via the Harbour Bridge if I have a bit more time.

I don't think Gordon St is any steeper than the Lilyfield Rd hill up to Mary St, but it is narrow & iIME driver behaviour on that street is preferably avoided.

[mikesbytes]

The Gordon st problem is going to be that slower riders in particular are going to find themselves blocking motorists when climbing up the hill and then when they get up there, they will either need to filter to front of sit behind motorists which will result in them blocking other motorists as they will be slow on the uphill start to the lights.

Will the motorists blame the RTA for being blocked by the cyclists?

[LateStarter]

And then all those miscreant cyclists who wantonly delayed the important motorists will zoom down the bus lane while the poor rego & tax paying motorists wait patiently in the gridlock, lovely. I might do a few circuits there myself in a few weeks. Pity it's going to be a real pain getting back to Lilyfield Rd again

[roberto73]

The Gordon st problem is going to be that slower riders in particular are going to find themselves blocking motorists when climbing up the hill and then when they get up there, they will either need to filter to front of sit behind motorists which will result in them blocking other motorists as they will be slow on the uphill start to the lights.

Will the motorists blame the RTA for being blocked by the cyclists?

Might be our best hope, motorists will demand a bike lane!
Ive noticed a bit of peletoning on Lilyfield Rd where cyclists stick together so they can control the motorists better, could be a useful technique on Gordon.

[roberto73]

Thanks Bob,

I ride in the bus lane on Victoria Road from Darling Street and briefly thought about staying in the bus lane up the bridge to the statues, but remembered the merge with city west link traffic.

Looks like I will be switching to Parramatta Rd for the quick route and via the Harbour Bridge if I have a bit more time.

I don't think Gordon St is any steeper than the Lilyfield Rd hill up to Mary St, but it is narrow & iIME driver behaviour on that street is preferably avoided.

Yes, interesting to see if numbers go right down on Lilyfield Rd and Anzac Bridge. Other alternatives are (?) Ramsay and Marion/Styles/Collins thu to Nelson St, then maybe to Parramatta Rd or Pyrmont Br Rd, or Ingham/ Waratah St thru Haberfield then Allen/Moore thru Leichhardt.

[find_bruce]

I like the peleton idea - big enough group & I will happily ride straight over the Anzac bridge- 1,000 cyclists each way per day so should be able to get some decent groups going that are too big to ignore.

Sadly I expect you are correct, cyclist numbers will drop & the already full buses & congested roads will continue not to cope

[mikesbytes]

If my partner was riding up Gordon st, she would be doing a max of 10kph. Allow for the door zone of the parked cars, that would mean that to overtake her and allow the legal 1 metre, the motorists would need to be completely on the wrong side of the road and somehow I doubt that could be done safely, so the motorists would have 2 choices;
1. Do an unsafe overtake
2. Wait behind the cyclist
Some how I suspect there will be sufficient motorists performing 1. to put off a lot of cyclists like my partner. Not that it will affect the future profit of Transurban or whoever it is who owns the motorway.

What about turning right at Cathern st, left into Brenan st, continue on Railway pde and take the bike path than goes under the tramway, eventually onto James Craig rd? There could be some issues joining the Anzac bridge bike path

[find_bruce]

If my partner was riding up Gordon st, she would be doing a max of 10kph. Allow for the door zone of the parked cars, that would mean that to overtake her and allow the legal 1 metre, the motorists would need to be completely on the wrong side of the road and somehow I doubt that could be done safely, so the motorists would have 2 choices;
1. Do an unsafe overtake
2. Wait behind the cyclist
Some how I suspect there will be sufficient motorists performing 1. to put off a lot of cyclists like my partner. Not that it will affect the future profit of Transurban or whoever it is who owns the motorway.

I think you are right - I am a very confident rider but do not like riding up Gordon St.

What about turning right at Cathern st, left into Brenan st, continue on Railway pde and take the bike path than goes under the tramway, eventually onto James Craig rd? There could be some issues joining the Anzac bridge bike path

This will work, but according to the plans roberto73 linked to above the path under the tramway will become a traffic controlled route until it is demolished around August this year