Northern Link
The proposed Northern Link is part of Brisbane City Council's TransApex plan, and will connect the Western Freeway at Toowong to the Inner City Bypass at Kelvin Grove.
Impacts on cycling
This has potential to make space available on Milton Road for bus lanes and/or bike lanes, although Council's current political aversion to be seen to be "funnelling" traffic into the tunnels for the contractors' benefit makes this less likely. The project overview claims that the Northern Link would "enhance public transport, pedestrian and cycle networks" and "provide opportunities for express bus routes from the western subrubs (sic) into the CBD", although it does not provide any further detail. Milton Road is shown on the 2007 South East Queensland Principal Cycle Network Plan as a "future principal route".
On the other hand the project looks likely to wreak havoc on the Western Freeway bikeway and North Toowong corridor (part of the Western cycling arterial) like the North-South Bypass Tunnel did on the South East Freeway bikeway (Brisbane's only other previously useful cycling arterial of note), and even on the new Toowong roundabout crossing [1][2]. The plans show the ramps on both sides of the bridge will be removed and rebuilt [3], as will about 1.5 km of the freeway bikeway [4][5]. The EIS states that existing cycle connectivity will be maintained during construction, but experience with other TransApex projects to date indicates this is unlikely to occur, and any connectivity that exists during construction is likely to be significantly inferior to the existing connectivity.
The proposal will also have significant impacts on cycling on the Inner City Bypass and adjacent off-road bike paths in Victoria Park. The new entrance and exit lanes for the tunnel will mean resumption of the road's existing shoulder (currently a relatively safe and convenient cycle route), and on-road cyclists will need to merge across the exit lane when cycling along the ICB eastbound [6]. The off-road path that connects Victoria Park Road to the land bridge will also need to be removed and reconstructed [7].
Timeline
The tunnel was originally expected to be in operation in 2013-2014, but in December 2008 (around the height of the global financial crisis) Council announced it had only one financially viable tenderer, and deferred the project until it was able to find at least one more.
- December 2007: Initial studies
- April 2008: Preliminary concept
- 21 May 2008: Concept design
- June 2008: Reference design
- October – December 2008 (originally scheduled for September 2008): Environmental Impact Statement display [8]
- 19 December 2008: tender deferred due to lack of competition [9]
- 20 April 2009: removal of Toowong and Kelvin Grove local access connections announced [10][11]
- June 2009: supplementary EIS released [12]
- 7 December 2009: short list of tenderers announced (Northern Direct, Transcity and the Leighton Baulderstone Razel Joint Venture) [13]
- December 2010: Construction [14]
- Late 2014 (originally 2013 – 2014): Operation [15]
See also
- Council's page [16]
- The project EIS page [17]
- The Department of Infrastructure and Planning's page [18]
- Media coverage [19]
