Proposed F6 Extension Motorway – You need to act now!
The proposed F6 Extension Stage 1 presents the NSW Government with an excellent opportunity to provide high quality Active Transport (AT) infrastructure in the Kogarah to Arncliffe area. While we doubt the overall long term effectiveness of more and more motorways, we must take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Information on the F6 Extension can be found here. The project has recently released a Community Update and the Preferred Infrastructure Report.
We now need your support to make a submission on the Preferred Infrastructure Report (PIR) by 8 May to support a new Active Transport inclusion in the project, but also to lobby to rectify a major omission. These submissions can be made at https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/10441 (see top right side).
Bicycle NSW has made submissions to RMS both at the Preliminary Design phase and on the EIS. Our overall aim was for the F6 Extension to include a safe, off-road, Active Transport link for walkers and riders from Kogarah all the way to the Cooks River. The last time the NSW Government did this was for the M7 Motorway in 2003!
We are pleased to say that following lobbying by Bicycle NSW and BUGs, Bayside Council, and many others, that the PIR now includes an extended southern link to the shared path in Monterey (see below in purple):
We need your help to support this change as it faces some local opposition. The advantages are:
- It provides extended Active Transport links to the Shared Path which runs over President Ave and then to the north.
- It provides greater Active Transport “permeability” from the east side of Scarborough Park North to the west side. Walkers and riders will no longer have to go via busy President Ave or Barton St.
- It will help preserve the park area by directing AT users to the path, and not on the present network of informal tracks.
- As the path will be raised in critical areas, it will help preserve vegetation. And wildlife will be protected from dogs as they will be constrained to the path.
- It presents educational opportunities on the wetland if viewing platforms and informative signs are provided (eg Baludarri Wetlands on the Parramatta Valley Cycleway).
Please include these points in your submission.
However, the full end to end, off-road shared path has not been included! This is a major lost opportunity which must be rectified. The present plans include a 700 metre on-road portion on the busy Bay St, Francis Ave and Bruce St (Brighton Le Sands) – see the orange dashed line on the figure below:
This lack of connectivity ruins a great shared path. Would you let your child ride the on-road section? And the crying shame is that RMS hasn’t been made this off-road for two main reasons:
- Property acquisition: This is despite the fact the RMS already own the majority of properties required to make this section off-road. And the small widths required at the rear of four properties are already zoned for Recreational Use!
- Safety: RMS are concerned about the safety of walkers and riders in an area where the shared path may be constrained between two nearby fences for about 130 metres in length. But they think it’s OK to force riders onto the road for 700 metres!
We need you to include a call to make this section off-road in your submission.
We also need you to write to Mr Rob Stokes MP, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces to call for this shared path to be entirely off-road. His addresses are:
pittwater@parliament.nsw.gov.au
The Hon. Rob Stokes MP
GPO Box 5341
SYDNEY NSW 2001
The time to act is now! Please make a submission via the web site, and also send Rob Stokes a message.
