Oz. Overview: Toll roads in Australia: wombats* at work

Several urban tunnels are an interesting aspect of toll projects under way or planned in Australia. A public float of shares in City Link, a $1.4 billion inner city toll facility in Melbourne, the nation’s second city, was heavily over-subscribed February — despite political controversy. The project involves one of the longest urban tunnels in the world (2.1 miles), a second shorter tunnel (1 mile), and long bridge sections, as well as doubling the width of two approach expressways.

In Sydney, Australia’s largest city a mile long tunnel on the Eastern Distributor toll expressway will shortly be announced for concession with the aim of breaking a bottleneck on the main route from the airport to central city hotels in time for the Olympic Games of 2000. Two more major toll highway tunnels could be underway by then. (*Footnote for American readers: A wombat is a tunneling animal like a groundhog, only larger, tougher and much prettier. Related to the koala bear. Sleeps in his hole days, lives it up nights.)

Sydney urban toll tunnels

(1) Eastern Distributor: project length 1.5 miles, two 2-lane tunnels 1.0 miles long. Bored tunnels in Sydney sandstone. Location: immediately east of the CBD leading from Palmer Street at William Street, Wooloomooloo south under Darlinghurst and Taylor Square emerging in three directions to South Dowling Street, Anzac Parade and Moore Park Road. Cost around $200m. Tolling for northbound traffic only. Concessionaire being selected. Construction expected to begin late 1996 for completion by 2000.

(2) M5-East: project length 5 to 6 miles extending existing toll road east to airport peripheral roads, 4 or 6 lanes divided cut-and-cover tunnel under linear park, route and design incomplete. Location: Arncliffe and Rockdale immediately west of Sydney airport. Start: uncertain, but pressure to build by Olympic Games in 2000.

(3) M2-East: project length 2.6 miles, two 2-lane tunnels for a so-far undetermined portion of this, most bored in sandstone under Epping Road an existing surface arterial. Location: Lane Cove on Sydney’s inner North Shore. Project will be the missing link between the M2 toll road under construction 1995-1997 and the existing Gore Hill Freeway which takes traffic off the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Tunnel and currently ends at the Pacific Highway.

Coat-hanger first toll

Sydney’s famous ‘coathanger’ style bridge over the Sydney Harbor has always been tolled. Since 1992 its 8 lanes have been supplemented by an investor financed 4-lane tunnel alongside, which is tolled. Radial expressways have investor-built toll sections to the western suburbs (M4) and to the southwest (M5). The last leads out to a rural highway leading south to the second city Melbourne and to the national capital Canberra. The M5 toll road is planned to be extended considerably, hopefully in time for the Olympic Games in 2000. A branch to the west will service a new international airport at Badgery’s Creek. At the eastern end the roadway will be extended by tunnel under a sensitive park and possibly under parts of the major airport, Kingsford-Smith.

First Oz e-toll

Due to open in 1997 is the M2, or Hills Motorway, a $475m, 12.5 mile east-west expressway through Sydney’s near-northern suburbs. It is 4 lanes divided through its length while its 7 most western miles will contain a segregated central 2-lane bus-only roadway. The buses will connect to the Epping railway station, which is 20 minute train ride to the CBD. The eastern end of the toll road project in North Ryde will for the immediate future be connected to a 4 lane surface arterial with 2.6 miles and 6 traffic signals between it and the Gore Hill Freeway and Warringah Freeway connections to the harbor crossings (see Sydney Tunnels: M2-East above). The concessionaire Tollaust Pty Ltd is planning to build a 1,000-plus car parking garage and bus interchange at the city end of his toll road and the Transit Authority will run buses every 3 minutes during rush hour to the CBD.

The M2 will be the first Australian toll facility to offer the general public e-toll tags (a limited number of read-only tags have been trialled the past four years on the harbor bridge.) The same tags — AT/Comm of Boston MA is in final negotiations for the contract for Type II read/write transponders — will probably be used on the harbor bridge and then find their way onto the M4, M5 and Eastern Distributor toll roads.

City Link

Melbourne the country’s second city currently has no toll facility, but amid controversy appears to be proceeding with “City Link,” one of the most ambitious and difficult toll road projects in the world. The Labor Opposition made the tolls a major issue in a recent (March 30) state election, but the Kennett Liberal Government promoting the scheme, was re-elected.

City Link is a $1.4 billion roadway system that is either elevated or deep-tunneled over almost all its 14 miles — one tunnel under South Richmond, an inner suburb, the main Yarra River and the beautiful Domain Gardens — is fully 2 miles long. The L-shaped highway system will be dual 3-lanes with twelve interchanges and will skirt the southern and western edges of the central business district. It will act as a downtown collector-distributor as well as linking together three previously deadend radial suburban expressways, one of which is the route in to the city from the airport. Predicted to carry 80,000 vehicles daily from the start, the Link will be exclusively e-tolled at highway speed.

A public float of the City Link company has allowed the public to participate in the profits, and risks. Ground on the complex civil engineering will be broken before mid-year with completion due in 2000. The operator is currently calling for tenders for electronic tolling and video enforcement with a view to signing a contract late 1996 or early 1997.

Melbourne’s toll tunnels

(1) Burnley tunnel: a 3 lane east-bound tunnel beginning at the city end in a portal shared with the second Domain tunnel it will use cut-&-cover at each end and in the middle section be deep bored under the Domain park, the Yarra River and Richmond, a mixed residential/industrial suburb to emerge at the Southeast Freeway in Burnley. Construction to start May 1996.

(2) Domain tunnel: a 3 lane west-bound tunnel of 1 mile length that makes use of an existing 4 lane riverside expressway as a converted one-way feeder, starts underground at Punt Road, Richmond to go under the river and Domain Gardens to join the Burnley tunnel at its western portal at the Westgate freeway in South Melboune. Mainly cut-&-cover, the river will be coffer-damned during construction scheduled to begin shortly.

Brisbane

In the country’s third city Brisbane there’s a privately built Gateway Bridge with tolls, and two toll roads (the Logan south of the city and the Sunshine north) in operation, also investor-built. The state government retreated from a third major tollway (to the southern Gold Coast resort area) after an election setback attributed to the unpopularity of tolls, following demagogic attacks by the rightwing opposition. The Gateway company however is proceeding to construct an already agreed toll road link between its bridge and its toll road to the south and plans to introduce electronic collection — first on the bridge, then on the two tollways.

The highway south from Sydney to Melbourne and Canberra is already mainly expressway standard untolled road and likely to be completed ‘free.’ North of Sydney to Newcastle through spectacular broken country preserved as wilderness is one of the world’s most beautiful expressways — built as a toll road but since de-tolled. From Newcastle on to Brisbane the highway is circuitous and sub-standard (mostly a through-every-town 2 laner) and there has been discussion of upgrading this as an investor-built toll road. But environmental objections to the direct coastal route have stymied any major highway improvement so far. The inland route (via Armidale) presently preferred by trucks is less attractive financially than a toll road which could cater for the coastal resort trade as well. (Sources: Melbourne City Link Authority, 61 3 9650 6055 fx 9650 7410; NSW Roads & Traffic Authority 61 2 218 6888; Gateway Bridge Company, Brisbane 61 7 390 8633)

Urban tunnels elsewhere

The largest urban tunnel project under way in the United States is the Y-shaped Boston Central Artery (I-93)/Third Harbor Tunnel (I-90) project. The $8 billion project is tax-payer funded — tribute to the pork barrel skills of the former House Speaker from Boston, Top O’Neill. The Central Artery arm of the project substitutes a 8 & 10-lane underground and depressed expressway for an existing 6-lane expressway that is to be demolished. The project is extremely complicated but consists of 5 major tunnel sections, the longest of which is over a mile for a total of about 4 centerline miles of underground. The 4-lane Third Harbor tunnel to Boston airport which has long underground approaches is being operated by the Mass. Turnpike as a toll facility.

Urban tunnels have been proposed for the Los Angeles area (the Pasadena missing link in I-710 northwest of the CBD, US-2 in Hollywood, and a network downtown) and in downtown San Francisco (US-101 & Golden Gate bridge traffic under city streets southeast to the Bay Bridge and the I-80/I-280 and Bayshore freeway network to the south.) On the east side of the Bay bridge, a tunnel has been proposed in Oakland to replace the double-deck I-880 Cypress Freeway which collapsed in an earthquake a few years ago. None of these American urban tunnels however are being actively pursued. The action is mainly in Europe.

Oslo Norway has an impressive urban tunnel almost 2 miles long under its waterfront area that is financed by e-tolls. The Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Hague metro area of Holland has several toll tunnels, as does Madrid, the Spanish capital. In France Marseilles, Paris and Lyons all have urban toll tunnels, with discussion and study of whole underground networks of highways. By sizing these for cars only they can be built more economically. (Excellent if dating source: Robert Poole & Yuzo Sugimoto, “Congestion Relief Toll Tunnels,”Policy Study 164, Reason Foundation, July 1993, 310/391-2245)