Lack of Bridge between North and South Eveleigh a major concern

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.