Stop wasting $ on Sydney's "Toll Mania": Cancel the $7.4b Western Harbour Tunnel Now!
The issue
What is this Petition About?
The Western Harbour Toll Road Tunnel is proposed to join Westconnex (at Rozelle) to the Warringah Freeway on the North Shore of Sydney via a 6.5km toll road tunnel under Sydney Harbour.
The est. price tag has climbed to $7.4 billion and is still climbing - it's already predicted to blow out by $1.4 BILLION. Unbelievably a portion of that funding is going to build the cancelled Beaches Link above ground infrastructure and Millions has already been spent to retain space for this cancelled project.
This toll road program has been very poorly planned and creates more traffic in local areas on both sides of the Harbour and for anyone trying to approach the Harbour crossings via local connections and arterial roads.
With inflation and poor planning the costs will clearly climb higher and the tolls will have to be expensive. Transurban said it's not viable without two way tolling across ALL Harbour crossings. It's Sydney's trucks, tradies and workers who will suffer the most trying to work across the Harbour after travelling on other toll roads. The toll mania in Sydney is out of control and the Western Harbour Tunnel makes it worse.
We need to act now before the real Western Harbour tunnelling work begins (Stage 2 cross harbour contract is 90% of the cost and not yet started). It's not too late but this will likely be our last chance to make some real sense out of yet another disastrous Sydney centric toll road project.
We ask our Premier, State Ministers and relevant Legislative Council Members to cancel the Western Harbour Tunnel now and modify the Warringah Freeway Project.
We need plantable green space for 6000 trees, more sustainable transport and the serious congestion and pollution problems fixed. The only way to do that is to upgrade the freeway as a stand alone project without the toll roads.
We ask that projects which have stronger business cases and provide for sustainable growth be invested in locally and across NSW instead of yet another wasteful Sydney centric toll road.
Additional Background:
Who does it Impact?
Everyone travelling through Sydney..and our cost of living beyond.
All commuters and residents who travel through and/or live in the Inner West and Lower North Shore including 10,000 children attending school in proximity. Project documents demonstrate that anyone accessing the freeway will experience congestion across the local arterial roads which stem from the the Warringah Freeway on and off ramps due to extensive access changes which prioritise the toll roads. These delays are documented to occur across North Sydney and well back into Willoughby. Greater delays will also be experienced in the Inner West due to induced demand i.e. more drivers using the route induced by this project.
An independent reviewer for Infrastructure Australia raised considerable issues with the travel time savings quoted for this project due in part to the complexity and constrained capacity of the network feeding into the freeway system. The Warringah Freeway was always an ill-concieved LA style freeway inserted into residential areas without sufficient supporting roads because Bradfield had planned for greater public transport capacity via the Bridge. The Western Harbour Tunnel simply doubles down on the mistake of the past. These local road constraints will not be relieved by a future Beaches Link as it is the freeway changes which predominantly cause the network issues and delays. The Beaches Link simply brings more commuters into the fray. Providing for increased road capacity and serving that via the most complex freeway system in Australia was simply the wrong approach - the pinch point either has to happen on the Freeway where all the traffic converges or as per the current design will happen across all of the surrounding suburbs and beyond. Either way delays are inevitable.
To cover the costs of this expensive project high tolls will likely affect truckies, tradies and workers travelling to, from and through the North Shore further pushing up cost of living for all. It has not been confirmed whether the increased harbour tolls will be included in a cap and it is thought that this is unlikely to be possible given the enormous concession obligation (toll contracts) that needs to be serviced across Sydney. The cap wasn't in existence when the projects business case was developed and the impacts of including it or not should be considered before proceeding.
Cross Harbour tolls would unequally affect those coming from further away who have travelled through another toll network (ie Westconnex, Lane Cove Tunnel, NorthConnex) and who don't have the choice to switch to public transport. Excluding these drivers and only asking local drivers to pay higher tolls would likely result in a failed Western Harbour business case, i.e. a White Elephant, as too many drivers convert into other modes of transport in search of more affordable transport methods.
Why have projected costs gone up so much?
Since the project was planned inflation, post Covid hybrid working arrangements (proportionally higher in inner Sydney suburbs), and major project changes made on the run have degraded the business case to such a degree that the project is no longer viable according to Transurban. An updated business case review (including all hidden costs) has not been done or made public. Hidden costs have emerged due to changes such at $7.5 Million spent on upgrading Cammeray golf course, costs related to acquisitions i.e. Balmain Leagues and the costs associated with a major modification to drill below Sydney Harbour. According to the project engineer the TBM's now need to be custom built overseas as the size required does not exist in Australia adding considerable costs reportedly more than $30 MILLION each.
Additionally the Department of Health have recently confirmed that there will be above Australian and WHO levels of pollution around the project creating health costs and the projects independent review noted that more work was needed to assess the pollution impacts to the many high rise residential homes in the area. Contamination reports also demonstrate that land set to be returned will require costly remediation due to contamination.
The government is pushing ahead expecting the people of NSW to pay for an unviable project with many hidden/ unplanned for costs and considerable disbenefits.
How can the money be better spent?
Major projects in the West and Regional Areas are being cancelled and public transport investment is at risk where population growth is the strongest or where communities are too dense to sustain substantial growth in vehicle reliance.
The concentration of investment in the Inner Suburbs of Sydney doesn't match the growth pattern of Sydney and fails to meet the needs of already congested and polluted suburbs.
Investment should be prioritised to go toward active and public transport in dense/ growth areas and supporting the regional road and rail network - not city toll roads which simply grow and monetise congestion while increasing cost of living.
Why is Inner Sydney/ the North Shore getting a Metro and a new Road?
The very same corridor (North Sydney to Inner West) is received a multi-billion dollar investment in Metro (est. $25.32bn). An investment which has already blown out by $9bn. The best option for these dense suburbs is to ensure a higher proportion of people move toward sustainable forms of transport and all efforts should be made to support the Metro uptake via better last 5km links. Investing in a competing Toll Road unequally places investment in one corridor in Sydney at the expense of other projects while degrading the business case for the Metro.
Why is the Cancelled Beaches Link project still a big part of the design?
To make matters worse the tunnel was to join to the now cancelled Beaches Link. Alarmingly Millions of dollars of infrastructure for Beaches Link is still planned to be built into the Western Harbour and Warringah Freeway works.
As part of these works over 4 ha of Crown land has been taken from the community and urban deforestation is underway with 3000 trees in the process of being destroyed. Despite the project conditions promising a 2:1 replacement of trees there is no space to grow mature trees to this volume in the area. It makes no sense to remove space and create more local congestion due to the extreme freeway access changes when the Beaches Link is no longer going ahead.
The contracts and plans need to be urgently amended to remove the very substantial amount of space (and money) the Beaches Link infrastructure is consuming.
The Beaches Link is either cancelled or it isn't.
But hasn't it already started?
A starter tunnel has begun to be built under an adjustment to the Rozelle Interchange Contract (Stage 1) which can allow for future capacity building however the main tunnelling, allocated the sheer bulk of the funding, under the Western Harbour Tunnel Business Case (Stage 2) has only just been announced and has not yet begun.
The extensive works on the Warringah Freeway to date are the preparatory works to start to reconfigure the freeway around receiving the tunnels. The works planned to come should be modified to remove the planned Beaches Link and Western Harbour Tunnel infrastructure and ensure that adequate space can be returned to the community.
The Freeway project can still achieve a significant upgrade without the toll road tunnel projects through diverting some of the investment into more active, public transport and modern transport technology. This is a far more cost effective and growth sustaining option for this corridor at the present time - freeing up funding for other projects.
Won't it cost too much to cancel?
The costs to go ahead with Stage 2 of the Western Harbour Tunnel contract far outweigh the benefits and reasonable penalties (Note: this information is kept cabinet in confidence and should be made public). This stage should be, as a minimum, deferred until such time as the cost/ benefits to the people of NSW can be demonstrated. It is a requirement that all major projects reach a cost/benefit ratio of above 1.
Far less than 10% of the overall cost of the Western Harbour Tunnel has been spent to date under other stages.
Other projects have been cancelled or placed on hold at a similar stage when their costs have outweighed benefits.
The Stage 2 contract was hurriedly rushed through prior to the State Election and was poorly planned. Given the cost overruns of the Light Rail Project the awarded contractor is well aware of the dangers of progressing with a poorly scoped project which is under costed. It should be noted that the Financial Review said "The Spanish infrastructure group building Sydney's light rail line, Acciona, has won more than $30 million in a financial claim against the consortium delivering the project, boosting its confidence that other claims for cost blowouts have merit." Considerable additional costs may be incurred if the project is not properly planned and assessed.
Act now and stop Sydney's Toll Mania for good. It's gone far enough.
Photo: (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
569
The issue
What is this Petition About?
The Western Harbour Toll Road Tunnel is proposed to join Westconnex (at Rozelle) to the Warringah Freeway on the North Shore of Sydney via a 6.5km toll road tunnel under Sydney Harbour.
The est. price tag has climbed to $7.4 billion and is still climbing - it's already predicted to blow out by $1.4 BILLION. Unbelievably a portion of that funding is going to build the cancelled Beaches Link above ground infrastructure and Millions has already been spent to retain space for this cancelled project.
This toll road program has been very poorly planned and creates more traffic in local areas on both sides of the Harbour and for anyone trying to approach the Harbour crossings via local connections and arterial roads.
With inflation and poor planning the costs will clearly climb higher and the tolls will have to be expensive. Transurban said it's not viable without two way tolling across ALL Harbour crossings. It's Sydney's trucks, tradies and workers who will suffer the most trying to work across the Harbour after travelling on other toll roads. The toll mania in Sydney is out of control and the Western Harbour Tunnel makes it worse.
We need to act now before the real Western Harbour tunnelling work begins (Stage 2 cross harbour contract is 90% of the cost and not yet started). It's not too late but this will likely be our last chance to make some real sense out of yet another disastrous Sydney centric toll road project.
We ask our Premier, State Ministers and relevant Legislative Council Members to cancel the Western Harbour Tunnel now and modify the Warringah Freeway Project.
We need plantable green space for 6000 trees, more sustainable transport and the serious congestion and pollution problems fixed. The only way to do that is to upgrade the freeway as a stand alone project without the toll roads.
We ask that projects which have stronger business cases and provide for sustainable growth be invested in locally and across NSW instead of yet another wasteful Sydney centric toll road.
Additional Background:
Who does it Impact?
Everyone travelling through Sydney..and our cost of living beyond.
All commuters and residents who travel through and/or live in the Inner West and Lower North Shore including 10,000 children attending school in proximity. Project documents demonstrate that anyone accessing the freeway will experience congestion across the local arterial roads which stem from the the Warringah Freeway on and off ramps due to extensive access changes which prioritise the toll roads. These delays are documented to occur across North Sydney and well back into Willoughby. Greater delays will also be experienced in the Inner West due to induced demand i.e. more drivers using the route induced by this project.
An independent reviewer for Infrastructure Australia raised considerable issues with the travel time savings quoted for this project due in part to the complexity and constrained capacity of the network feeding into the freeway system. The Warringah Freeway was always an ill-concieved LA style freeway inserted into residential areas without sufficient supporting roads because Bradfield had planned for greater public transport capacity via the Bridge. The Western Harbour Tunnel simply doubles down on the mistake of the past. These local road constraints will not be relieved by a future Beaches Link as it is the freeway changes which predominantly cause the network issues and delays. The Beaches Link simply brings more commuters into the fray. Providing for increased road capacity and serving that via the most complex freeway system in Australia was simply the wrong approach - the pinch point either has to happen on the Freeway where all the traffic converges or as per the current design will happen across all of the surrounding suburbs and beyond. Either way delays are inevitable.
To cover the costs of this expensive project high tolls will likely affect truckies, tradies and workers travelling to, from and through the North Shore further pushing up cost of living for all. It has not been confirmed whether the increased harbour tolls will be included in a cap and it is thought that this is unlikely to be possible given the enormous concession obligation (toll contracts) that needs to be serviced across Sydney. The cap wasn't in existence when the projects business case was developed and the impacts of including it or not should be considered before proceeding.
Cross Harbour tolls would unequally affect those coming from further away who have travelled through another toll network (ie Westconnex, Lane Cove Tunnel, NorthConnex) and who don't have the choice to switch to public transport. Excluding these drivers and only asking local drivers to pay higher tolls would likely result in a failed Western Harbour business case, i.e. a White Elephant, as too many drivers convert into other modes of transport in search of more affordable transport methods.
Why have projected costs gone up so much?
Since the project was planned inflation, post Covid hybrid working arrangements (proportionally higher in inner Sydney suburbs), and major project changes made on the run have degraded the business case to such a degree that the project is no longer viable according to Transurban. An updated business case review (including all hidden costs) has not been done or made public. Hidden costs have emerged due to changes such at $7.5 Million spent on upgrading Cammeray golf course, costs related to acquisitions i.e. Balmain Leagues and the costs associated with a major modification to drill below Sydney Harbour. According to the project engineer the TBM's now need to be custom built overseas as the size required does not exist in Australia adding considerable costs reportedly more than $30 MILLION each.
Additionally the Department of Health have recently confirmed that there will be above Australian and WHO levels of pollution around the project creating health costs and the projects independent review noted that more work was needed to assess the pollution impacts to the many high rise residential homes in the area. Contamination reports also demonstrate that land set to be returned will require costly remediation due to contamination.
The government is pushing ahead expecting the people of NSW to pay for an unviable project with many hidden/ unplanned for costs and considerable disbenefits.
How can the money be better spent?
Major projects in the West and Regional Areas are being cancelled and public transport investment is at risk where population growth is the strongest or where communities are too dense to sustain substantial growth in vehicle reliance.
The concentration of investment in the Inner Suburbs of Sydney doesn't match the growth pattern of Sydney and fails to meet the needs of already congested and polluted suburbs.
Investment should be prioritised to go toward active and public transport in dense/ growth areas and supporting the regional road and rail network - not city toll roads which simply grow and monetise congestion while increasing cost of living.
Why is Inner Sydney/ the North Shore getting a Metro and a new Road?
The very same corridor (North Sydney to Inner West) is received a multi-billion dollar investment in Metro (est. $25.32bn). An investment which has already blown out by $9bn. The best option for these dense suburbs is to ensure a higher proportion of people move toward sustainable forms of transport and all efforts should be made to support the Metro uptake via better last 5km links. Investing in a competing Toll Road unequally places investment in one corridor in Sydney at the expense of other projects while degrading the business case for the Metro.
Why is the Cancelled Beaches Link project still a big part of the design?
To make matters worse the tunnel was to join to the now cancelled Beaches Link. Alarmingly Millions of dollars of infrastructure for Beaches Link is still planned to be built into the Western Harbour and Warringah Freeway works.
As part of these works over 4 ha of Crown land has been taken from the community and urban deforestation is underway with 3000 trees in the process of being destroyed. Despite the project conditions promising a 2:1 replacement of trees there is no space to grow mature trees to this volume in the area. It makes no sense to remove space and create more local congestion due to the extreme freeway access changes when the Beaches Link is no longer going ahead.
The contracts and plans need to be urgently amended to remove the very substantial amount of space (and money) the Beaches Link infrastructure is consuming.
The Beaches Link is either cancelled or it isn't.
But hasn't it already started?
A starter tunnel has begun to be built under an adjustment to the Rozelle Interchange Contract (Stage 1) which can allow for future capacity building however the main tunnelling, allocated the sheer bulk of the funding, under the Western Harbour Tunnel Business Case (Stage 2) has only just been announced and has not yet begun.
The extensive works on the Warringah Freeway to date are the preparatory works to start to reconfigure the freeway around receiving the tunnels. The works planned to come should be modified to remove the planned Beaches Link and Western Harbour Tunnel infrastructure and ensure that adequate space can be returned to the community.
The Freeway project can still achieve a significant upgrade without the toll road tunnel projects through diverting some of the investment into more active, public transport and modern transport technology. This is a far more cost effective and growth sustaining option for this corridor at the present time - freeing up funding for other projects.
Won't it cost too much to cancel?
The costs to go ahead with Stage 2 of the Western Harbour Tunnel contract far outweigh the benefits and reasonable penalties (Note: this information is kept cabinet in confidence and should be made public). This stage should be, as a minimum, deferred until such time as the cost/ benefits to the people of NSW can be demonstrated. It is a requirement that all major projects reach a cost/benefit ratio of above 1.
Far less than 10% of the overall cost of the Western Harbour Tunnel has been spent to date under other stages.
Other projects have been cancelled or placed on hold at a similar stage when their costs have outweighed benefits.
The Stage 2 contract was hurriedly rushed through prior to the State Election and was poorly planned. Given the cost overruns of the Light Rail Project the awarded contractor is well aware of the dangers of progressing with a poorly scoped project which is under costed. It should be noted that the Financial Review said "The Spanish infrastructure group building Sydney's light rail line, Acciona, has won more than $30 million in a financial claim against the consortium delivering the project, boosting its confidence that other claims for cost blowouts have merit." Considerable additional costs may be incurred if the project is not properly planned and assessed.
Act now and stop Sydney's Toll Mania for good. It's gone far enough.
Photo: (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
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Petition created on 18 November 2023