So the RTA's own modelling showed the Rozelle Interchange would be a traffic disaster—but generating more toll road trips for Transurban was more important.
"The [NSW Roads and Traffic Authority] finalised the first business case for the WestConnex tunnel project in June 2013, with the help of road designers from around the world.
"[Paul Forward, a former CEO of the RTA] said the initial concept did not include the Rozelle Interchange.
...
"In 2014, an expert review group was formed to assess these plans.
"Mr Forward said it was at this point that TfNSW bureaucrats began to question the connectivity provided by the design.
"The RTA's former director of traffic Chris Ford told the inquiry that 15 alternative designs were modelled.
"Mr Ford said the modelling found that another motorway leading to the Anzac Bridge would cause congestion.
"'The issues that we see today were very clearly established in the modelling in 2014,' he said.
"In November 2015, after Mr Forward and Mr Ford were dismissed, TfNSW updated the WestConnex business case to include the tunnel to the Anzac Bridge, despite the congestion concerns raised by the modelling.
"In 2016, Transport for NSW updated the business case a second time ... creating a tunnel linking the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge."
...
"In 2018, the NSW government sold its 51 per cent stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation, the body responsible for operating WestConnex, to Transurban for $9 billion.
"Mr Forward said the final design would generate a larger number of toll trips than previous options."
@SuperMoosie@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars#auspol#alp#lnp
This is the inevitable result of an electoral system that establishes the dominance of two similar parties (a #Uniparty ) allied with permission to accept huge amounts of money to these two parties but no-one else. We can see this with new electoral laws in Victoria, which are now being emulated in Canberra to hamstring Independents and minor parties. https://youtu.be/7FLqYpD6eYw?si=smGlZmiT2fsfuC1r
@Gurre@fuck_cars The road lobby's big answer to the mess they've created with the Rozelle Interchange is to build a second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour.
Engineers at the inquiry into the Rozelle Interchange fiasco have already testified that will only create traffic jams elsewhere on the road network: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112383313109173146
@Gurre@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars By design... The RTA has been building the County Cumberland Road Plan since 1948 piecemeal so that each "missing piece" of their eventual plan is demanded by road users.
@shermozle@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars
Same here in Stockholm. Now that the 21 km tunneled motorway ringroad is nearing completion they're adding several widenings of connecting motorways etc as separate projects even though even in the planning documents they're explicitly consequences of the big new motorway "bypass".
@ajsadauskas@fuck_cars absolutely cooked decision making. Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. Anyone with an even basic level of understanding of road geometry can (and did) spot the problem with these projects from a mile away. Sigh.
I sometimes wonder about an alternative timeline where the m4 east was built circa '04. That was the actual """missing link""".
When can we have our surface street space back for public/active transport and placemaking?