Image: City of Sydney.
The City of Sydney has pedaled its next crucial move in its ambitious new Green Square precinct project, with a plan to start building essential new bike lanes that will cater to the increased traffic of residents riding to and from work in the CBD.
It’s an unsurprising move from the City of Sydney, which has consistently pushed for new bicycle link infrastructure under the leadership of Lord Mayor Clover Moore, which has led to a significant level of saturation of bike lanes in the city area.
The installation of these new bike lanes from Green Square to the city are part of the council’s $540 million investment in essential infrastructure for the fast growing Green Square community over the next decade.
According to the City of Sydney, three new cycleways are planned for the Green Square Town Centre.
These will include a 275 metre separated bidirectional cycleway along Geddes Avenue between Botany Road and Portman Street. Construction on this first Green Square cycleway will begin in June 2016.
The second will be a one-way 420 metre separated cycleway on either side of Zetland Avenue connecting Gunyama Park and the Aquatic Centre to the town centre and community facilities, between Paul Street and Victoria Park Parade.
The third will be a 350 metre separated bidirectional cycleway along Portman Street between Portman Lane and Hansard Street.
The cycleways in the Green Square Town Centre will be completed in stages and will open by late 2019. The Green Square library and plaza will open to the public in early 2018, and will include bike access between Zetland Avenue and Botany Road to Green Square Railway Station.
The new cycleways through Green Square will connect to more than 2.4 kilometres of separated bike lanes already linking Zetland, Waterloo, Alexandria and Redfern with the inner city.
The links will provide an easy 20-minute ride from Green Square along separated cycleways, shared paths and parks. Riders will also be able to get to destinations like Sydney University in less than 20 minutes and Central Station in about 15 minutes.
Ms Moore said the cycleways through Green Square will give local residents and businesses an easy, comfortable and safe 15 minute ride to Central Station, with the capacity to transport more than 50 busloads of people a day.
“Planning Green Square from the ground up has given us a unique opportunity to create a 36-metre wide central spine through the Green Square Town Centre – wide enough to accommodate a one-way separated cycleway on both sides. This is a first for Sydney, as all our other cycleways are retrofitted on narrower streets,” she said.
