A series of upgrades have been completed as part of the Sydney CBD Capacity Improvement Program to prepare the city for major changes including the introduction of light rail.
Sydney CBD Coordinator General Marg Prendergast announced the completion of the program which included a series of upgrades for buses, motorists, taxis and cyclists.
New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services and Transport crews completed essential improvements across 17 locations from 2015 to prepare the Sydney CBD for major changes including a new bus network and light rail.
“Crews put in more than 80,000 hours to design and to complete this work, which included rebuilding footpaths and kerbside changes to improve accessibility and capacity,” Ms Prendergast said.
“Crews completed work on 54 intersections, replaced or relocated more than 150 traffic light and street light poles and resurfaced more than 100,000 square metres of road, the equivalent of resurfacing the Sydney Harbour Bridge five times over.
Ms Prendergast said some changes to kerbs at intersections have made a big difference to the movement of buses around the city.
“We added another vehicle lane on both Market and College streets, which following the closure of George Street have both become even more crucial to moving vehicles around the city without congesting its central north-south arteries,” Ms Prendergast said.
“One of the most noticeable changes we made was the creation of new cycleways on Castlereagh and Liverpool streets, which connect to the existing Kent Street cycleway to create the first ever seamless connection through the CBD for cyclists.
“The Capacity Improvement Program complements the new CBD bus network introduced in October last year to provide better service reliability and remove congestion from the CBD core.”
Ms Prendergast said many of the locations are key CBD driving routes for buses, taxis and delivery and tradespeople, and this work has provided the extra capacity to keep Sydney moving.
