AUSTRALIA:Two more toll tunnelways on go

[Tunnelways we define as roads built underground because this is the most socially acceptable or economical urban alignment, as opposed to tunneling for engineering reasons to go under a physical barrier such as a mountain, bay or river.]

The CCT in Sydney will consist of twin tunnels of two-lanes each, about 2km (6,600') long east-west across the southern edge of the central business district. The tunnelway will link with ramps of the Western Distributor interchange in the Darling Harbour area just southwest of the CBD at its western end. At its eastern end it will flow into Bayswater Road, a major signalized arterial heading to the eastern suburbs in the Kings Cross area to the east of the city. About two-thirds along its length it will cross the recently opened Eastern Distributor toll tunnelway and have a ramp and loop connecting with that facility underground for west-south (airport) connections. There will also be an east-north ramp to city streets and conenctions to the Harbor bridge and Tunnel at the John Young Crescent.

The CCT tunnels will mostly be mined with short sections of cut-&-cover and construction. Two sets of rail-subway lines have to be avoided and many utilities. Westbound the tunnelway will go under Druit Street and Park Street in the CBD and eastbound under Bathurst Street – a block apart. This is the opposite of the normal leftside British-derived driving pattern and requires the two directions of tunnelway traffic to be flipped – Hong Kong/China border style – where the two converge about halfway along the project. To achieve this the opposite traffic directions cross over one another and here advantage is taken of the two levels to allow the east-north ramp to diverge underground. At the Eastern Distributor crossing underground the two directions are properly aligned British style side-by side under William Street to slip between the roadway surface and the roof of the Distributor. An earlier plan for extensive double-deck tunnel has been set aside as less cost-effective than the twin tunnel arrangement.

The location of the ventilation outlets was the major source of controversy. A single exhaust stack will be located between two existing elevated roadways of the Western Distributor near the western end of the project. Jetfans will move exhaust air to this location.

A toll of about $1.50 (A$2.50) paid exclusively via transponders is expected to finance the project. 18 sets of traffic signals will be avoided by traffic using the CCT. The present trip Darling Harbour to Kings Cross takes 10mins to 20mins while in the tunnelway it is expected to take about 2mins for timesavings of 8mins to 18mins.

The state government says the project will remove 50k vehicles/day from Park and William streets, allowing improved service for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers. Businesses throughout the city are likely to benefit by more green time for north-south movement and quicker pickups and deliveries due to reduced east-west surface traffic. Sidewalk widening, bicycle lanes, new landscaping and other traffic-calming improvements are planned for the east-west surface streets.

The government has been talking about the project as a means of taking up the slack in construction following the Olympic Games projects. The left-of-center state government has undercut almost all opposition to the project through detailed planning of surface improvements to start immediately the tunnelway opens. Druit & Park Street will become a pair of bus/cab lanes, and be closed at times to general traffic. Bathurst Street will get similar treatments. The full length of William Street, presently 6-lanes to Kings Cross will be made into a boulevard with 4 traffic lanes, widened sidewalks and median, bicycle lanes and heavy landscaping, with a new park created atop the works at the Cross.

Sydney’s CCT is an idea that had been knocked around for a couple of decades but in 1998 the state Labor government announced it planned to get it built – with construction to start as soon as possible after the Olympic Games. At that time it was said that the tunnelway would be a state-owned toll project. But government borrowing would have encroached on the ability to fund traditional government activities such as education, health and welfare, so it switched to reliance on investors to provide the capital and assume the risks of the road.

Construction cost is expected to be about $250m. [At 8 lane-km or 5 lane-mi the cost is $32m/lane-km or $50m/lane-mi.) Eight groups have lodged expressions of interest in the finance-build-operate-toll project, and a concessionaire is due to be selected early next year.

Lane Cove Tunnelway (M2/E)

North of the harbor in the posh leafy inner suburb of Lane Cove a 4.5km (2.8mi) M2/East roadway is in concept design and permitting. This is a gap between the eastern end of the Hills Motorway (M2) an investor-owned toll road, open three years, and the Gore Hill Freeway (M1/M2) which takes the Pacific Highway down to the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel for connections to the central business district. The present connection is Epping Road, a 6-lane signalized arterial that carries about 70k veh/day – very slowly most of the time. Since Epping Road has many properties and local streets abutting it there is strong local support for putting the through-traffic in a tunnelway. About 3.3km (2mi) will be underground and the remaining 1km (0.7mi) will be a bridge and approaches over the Lane Cove River. The 2x3-lane tunnelway and bridge is expected to cost about $400m [At 27 lane-km the project is $15m/lane-km, $24m/lane-mi.] This project is about a year away from the concession granting process.

M5/East

Construction is about three-quarters complete on Sydney’s longest tunnelway, the M5/East, located under residential areas about 10km (6mi) southwest of the CBD and due west of the airport. It’s a non-toll project being financed out of general revenues by the state government. It will link the investor-owned M5 tollway with the airport and the Eastern Distributor.

8.5km (5.3mi) of 2x2-lanes, this involves twin tunnels 4km (2.4mi) long under suburban housing and a park/creek corridor, and 500m (0.3mi) long tunneling under Cooks river on the airport boundary. Opposition to residential acquisition and to use of creeklands and a park forced the project underground half its length. Work on the tunnels started Feb 99.

The contract price for the whole 8.5km M5/E is $490m for 34 lane-km, $14m/lane-km, $23m/lane-mi.

At the western end the existing M5 toll motorway owned by Interlink is running traffic at around 65k veh/day, and is planning a widening to 2x3-lanes. This forms the major roadway between the center of Sydney and Botany Bay/airport area and the southwestern suburbs and the road to Melbourne.

RTA expects 60k veh/day on opening. It will connect the M5 with the Southern Cross Drive (90k veh/day) on the southern boundary of the airport, and hence complete the southern and eastern sides of what is planned as a box-shape ‘Sydney Orbital’ road system. M5-E was scheduled to open in -04, but construction using the NATM (mining by roadheader, reinforcement by rockbolts and concrete sprayed onto steel mesh) has run well ahead of schedule. Barring unforeseen complications it could open in 2001.

Melbourne

In Melbourne CityLink has a pair of tunnelways immediately southeast of the CBD – the Domain tunnel of 1.6km (1mi) which is in operation taking 3-lanes of traffic westbound and the Burnley tunnel of 3.4km (2.1mi) for 3-lanes eastbound – which has been delayed by construction problems. For the moment the state of Victoria is ruled by a government that is anti-toll – the Labor Party – even though it was this leftwing party which initiated the CityLink toll project. A rival Liberal Govt developed and brought the CityLink to fruition, so oppositionism now makes its successor Labor govt say “No more tolls.’

In any case the present Bracks Labor Govt wants two more tunnelways – both intended to extend the east-west Eastern Freeway at both its present ends to form a continuous urban motorway from CityLink West to Ringwood in the foothills of the Dandenong Mountains in the east. This would make connections to an eastern peripheral and to other local arterials.

Most advanced is the Eastern Freeway Extension East which begins 19km east of the CBD. It is just 4km (2.4mi) of roadway but has been highly contentious because of houses that would nee to be taken in a surface location plus intrusion into pretty bushlands and a creek. After two separate alternatives analyses the decision is in favor of a long tunnels solution which goes under housing, bushlands and the creek. There are to be a pair of 3-lane tunnels 1,535m (5,035') with a breakdown shoulder most of the distance. Cost is estimated to be $170m of which about $100m is the tunneled section (9.2 lane-km or $11m/lane-km, $17.3m/lane-mi.)

At the discussion stage, but also supported by the present government, is westward extension of the same Eastern Freeway from its present terminus at two major arterials Hoddle Street and Alexadra Parade in the inner suburb of Clifton Hill. The road here is 2x5-lanes and has great difficulty dispersing traffic onto local streets. The proposed extension west is 5km (3.1mi) The eastern 1.4km (0.8mi) to Nicholson St will probably be built in open trench in an existing wide median of Alexandra Parade, but about 3.4km involves densely built surface streets in Carlton then tight curving crescents around Melbourne’s major cemetery and the University of Melbourne and a final stretch through Royal Park, a park of playing fields. Only a deep tunnel of about 1.6km (1mi) seems to work politically under Carlton, the cemetery and university. The 2km (1.2mi) length through Royal Park playing fields might see mostly cut and cover work with some sections in open trench. The interchange at CityLink West near Flemington Rd could be one of the biggest design challenges of the whole project. But also contentious will be the details of design under Carlton, a 19th century neighborhood of row houses into which the university has spread.

HISTORY: Sydney saw its first major toll tunnelway opened December 1999 – the Easterm Distributor – under the Taylor Square area immediately southeast of the central business district. This involves some 1.7km (1mi) 2x3-lanes double-decked in a driven tunnel, followed southward after a split to local roads by about 2.3km (1.4mi) of 2x2-lanes side-by-side in a mix of roofed, partially-roofed, and depressed roadway. It eliminates a missing link in motorway standard road between the main Sydney airport and the CBD and Harbor bridge/tunnel connections. It has reduced travel times between the airport the CBD from anywhere between 30mins and an hour beforehand to about 15 to 20mins.

By going underneath a trendy inner residential and commercial area of narrow streets previously clogged with slowly moving through-traffic, the Eastern Distributor has served local residents, environmentalists and motorists alike. Kerbside parking, bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, and longer signal green time for cross traffic has all been made possible on the local surface streets. 60k vehicles a day are using the Eastern Distributor which has been entirely financed by investors, principally the Macquarie group (MIG), a publicly traded fund administered by the Macquarie Bank of Sydney. MIG has toll properties in Europe as well as in Australia, and is pursuing toll opportunities in north America. (Contacts Jodie Brough CCT 61 2 9228 4455 www.rta.nsw.gov.au www.macquarie.com.au)