Letter | The planning record doesn't bode well for Great Western Highway duplication

The two recent letters (March 24) by Medlow Bath residents Roserae Gambrill-Richardson and Shane Porteous about the proposed road tunnel at Blackheath require a follow-up.

Planning in this state is a shambles, especially in transport.

The government has chosen all the wrong projects and made all the wrong decisions in transport and in other areas: Westconnex, stadiums, Powerhouse Museum, Barangaroo, tower blocks with little green space and many more.

READ ALSO:

Premier Berejiklian has even admitted that it is okay to spend money to secure votes.

First, let's reflect on the recent floods. For years the current government has been proposing to raise the wall of Warragamba Dam, mainly as a flood mitigation measure. No wall would have held back the water which devastated large parts of Sydney.

READ ALSO:

The new $100 million road bridge at Windsor (which desecrated the heritage-listed Thompson Square, Australia's oldest public space) was completely submerged. It was touted by Transport for NSW as being 'flood proof'.

In transport, the decision to build a tunnel under Blackheath (but not Medlow Bath) is highly likely to be the latest in a long list of planning mistakes.

The metro in Sydney was selected mainly because it was supposed to be able to carry more passengers than the current double-deckers. It can't and it won't.

The metro extension to the new airport has been panned by Infrastructure Australia as a waste of money. Land acquisition for the airport itself is mired in scandal.

The cost of site clean-up of the contaminated land at Camellia for the Parramatta light rail is estimated to reach $100 million, on top of the over-priced initial purchase. That project is so bad that it has been sent to the ICAC for investigation.

The south east light rail went three times over budget. There are more examples of poor planning, too many to detail.

We have to remember two important things. First, the government decided on the Blackheath tunnel well before the 2019 election. The "co-design committee" was set up just to pay lip service to community consultation. Second, if the tunnel goes ahead, it will cost much more than the $2.5 billion figure still being bandied about.

As Shane Porteous pointed out in his letter, any road tunnel will not reduce travel time. The evidence, from all around the world, is very strong. Building more road space just attracts more cars and trucks and moves the traffic jams from one place to another. The tunnel won't solve congestion.

Given the government's very poor track record with transport infrastructure, the odds are that the Blackheath tunnel will be a boondoggle. Medlow Bath residents will have a five lane highway (with sets of traffic lights) running right through the middle of their little village: that's where the traffic jams will be moved to.

The people of Bathurst are all too familiar with planning disasters. We don't need any more.

For more detailed information about the Great Western Highway duplication between Lithgow and Katoomba, go to sites.google.com/view/railbestforgwh/