SHAVING five minutes off your journey in five years. That was the $48 million promise made to exasperated northern beaches bus commuters yesterday by the Minister for Roads, Eric Roozendaal, as he unveiled what was supposed to be the Government's long-awaited solution to the congested Spit Bridge.
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Fourteen months after pledging to fix the gridlocked corridor, Mr Roozendaal has unveiled a suite of minor upgrades far more modest than the Government's election promise that it would widen the bridge.
The upgrade does not include a dedicated citybound bus lane, nor a new bridge, and it prompted claims it was mere tinkering at the edges.
"It is a Band-Aid to make it look like something is happening," said Des Dent, the chief executive of 10,000 Friends of Greater Sydney, which has campaigned for a six-lane elevated suspension bridge as a replacement for the 50-year-old structure.
Mr Roozendaal said a morning peak northbound bus lane south of the bridge, a pedestrian overpass, the widening of key intersections and moving 20 car spaces on Military Road would "deliver reliability and improvements to this challenging corridor".
But the Opposition roads spokesman, Duncan Gay, said: "This was one of the Government's major election promises which they said they'd go away and come up with a solution for, and this is all they've given us - it's a joke."
The Roads and Traffic Authority chief executive, Les Wielinga, said the package was the best his agency could do with a limited budget.
"To effectively deal with the
corridor we would need a major roadway improvement plus a Spit Bridge construction outcome … It is many of billions of dollars to do that," he said.
"General travel time improvement of five minutes over an eight-kilometre section of roadway is a very good outcome" for buses, he said. "It is slightly less for cars, but there is also a three- to four-minute improvement for cars."
But he conceded the five-minute saving would be achieved only "at the end of the total completion of the package, so it is after four to five years".
The Government came under pressure over its lack of action on the bridge in late June when it became stuck in an open position trapping thousands of motorists.
Mr Wielinga said the proposals were about improving the efficiency of the existing road infrastructure beginning with the extension of clearway times and restrictions on parking. Tidal flow changes, the widening of intersections and a new pedestrian bridge would take longer, he said.
"But you will start to see savings straight away as we start to make the initial changes."
Mr Roozendaal said yesterday a key element of the improvements was the installation by December of GPS-based technology to the 300 buses that service the corridor, to give them green light priority as they approach intersections. But this technology has been reannounced by the State Government almost every year since 2002 and is running years behind schedule.
