Beaches Link and Gore Hill Freeway Connection

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I would like to object to the beaches link & gore hill freeway extension for the following reasons:

• We do not need more roads or tunnels built on the Northern Beaches, but we need better logistics and public transport as this will reduce traffic, traffic jams and reduce traffic pollution.
• Why not stimulate more people to work from home or an incentive for car pooling, taking public transport or working closer to home? Make public transport more affordable / free?
• Why not make the CBD traffic free; only trains, busses and trams allowed in?
• People, plants and animals need the preservation of designated green areas. Why damage such a great eco system as Manly Dam? Where does the wildlife go?
• Please keep the waterways pollution free.
• Inadequate community consultation. Please advise why one thinks this is a good idea? None of the residents agrees with this.
• As more people are now working from home due to covid19, this whole project needs to be revisited. Is this really feasible? I think the state can use the money spend on this project in much better ways such as stimulate the economy.
• Manly Dam and surrounding bush land areas with their animals, plants and streams etc and even the golf course full of wildlife and green areas need to be preserved
• There is already limited open and green space around the preferred route and loss of such open space should be avoided at all cost.
• Please preserve and respect Aboriginal heritage sites (eg, along Wakehurst Parkway and the Clive Park shoreline in Northbridge), Garigal National Park, Manly Dam and Manly-Warringah War Memorial Park. Much damage has been already been done over the years.
• I moved to the Northern Beaches for it's serenity, like many others. Soon we will be forced to move elsewhere.
• We do not want our area to become full of apartment buildings and overpopulation and busier roads so we do not want a tunnel making the area more accessible. People live here for a reason. I can move to Chatswood (it should be called Chats, as there is no longer any 'wood') for cheaper rent however I chose to live here.
• We do not need our local roads changed with increased traffic to make way for a tunnel no one wants and we don’t need the disruption and destruction of our area for the years and years it will take to build.
• I have been a proud resident of the Northern Beaches since 2000. I am originally from the Netherlands but have immigrated to Australia and it's Northern Beaches 21 years ago. It is an amazing place to live and work. It only takes me 15 minutes to walk to work. Most-likely I would be able to get a much higher paid job in the city. However, I have always chosen to find employment close to where I live.
• I am appalled by this Twin tolled motorway tunnels connecting the Warringah Freeway at Cammeray and the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon to the Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation at Balgowlah and the Wakehurst Parkway at Seaforth. I don't think this is in line with Australia's climate policy and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Dutch citizen have taken their own government to Court and won, in order to cut greenhouse gas emission in relation to global warming. See here: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/dutch-court-orders-state-to-slash-greenhouse-emissions-774859
• We are all advocating for reducing waste, reducing landfill, reducing pollution, leaving our natural forests alone and increasing our green areas to help protect the earth from climate change.
• Are you not concerned at all about our planet? Please watch the David Attenborough Mission Statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64R2MYUt394
• Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gas in the world. As a result, Australia is becoming hotter, and more prone to extreme heat, bushfires, droughts, floods and longer fire seasons because of climate change.
• On the City of Sydney website it states: "Sustainable Sydney 2030 will transform the way we live, work and play. It's a vision we have set for our city to help make it as green, global and connected as possible by 2030." So why destroy such green areas and communities?
• Transport emissions have the highest rate of growth of any sector since 1990. With no action, transport emissions are projected to continue growing to 2030. Providing viable alternatives to driving, such as expanding access to reliable, comfortable public transport, cycling and walking alternatives.
I sincerely hope that project can be stopped before it does any more damage.

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I object to the above due to the following.

The cost of 16 billion Aus..
The environmental disaster loss of green space .golf courses and spsorts fields.
The pollution and excess noise for up to eight years.
Unfiltered smoke stacks polluting suburbs and affecting local schools.
The movement of hundreds of trucks every day through our suburbs..
The costs do not stack up with the overall benefit to move the traffic jam further up the road.
The lack of public transport options not discussed by the State Government..

see attached.

Council is making comment on the project

Northern Beaches Council adopted the attached Submission on 23 February 2021. A copy of both the submission and the resolution of Council are attached.

Please see attached

Rob,

Great to hear you in the SMH pushing for more active transport consideration in future planning.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/bike-friendly-green-space-working-from-home-new-planning-blueprint-for-life-after-covid-19-20210224-p575hy.html#comments

However I don’t believe strategy is enough, as recent examples have shown that the current state and council processes just aren’t successful at executing these types of solutions.

On a small local level its been painful to watch Northern Beaches Council ineffectively flounder trying to build a simple cycle path through Manly, despite a generous state grant to fund it. Many councils have used COVID to accelerate active transport facilities, while Northern Beaches Council has just sat on its hands and delayed projects - to be honest I think state government should take back it’s COVID funding as it’s current compromise doesn’t deliver what it was set up to achieve.

On larger projects I find it incomprehensible that the multi billion dollar Beaches Link Tunnel has no provision for active transport along it’s Balgowlah to North Sydney corridor. When I’ve raised this issue I’ve been told it’s ‘out of scope’ for the project. I find this remarkable. Surely a $14 billion project should be giving taxpayers more choice than just driving a car. A few shared paths, (not best practice dedicated segregated cycle paths) that duplicate existing paths along Burnt Creek and Wakehurst Parkway area hardly providing a genuine active transport network.

I'm completely aware of Australian’s bizarre historical infatuation with their cars, but despite the political difficulties I believe governments should be providing what we need not necessarily just what we want.

Local councils have proven incapable of working together to provide a connected active transport route to the city and so this project offers the only real solution to create this much needed link. With the reduced surface traffic you’d assume a dedicated segragated cycle lane along Military Road would be the best solution.

If you’re going to make these grand announcements about making cycling friendly cities, isn’t it about time you added this thinking to your existing projects like Beaches Link.

As a resident of the Northern Beaches I am extremely concerned about the Environmental and Financial costs of the Beaches Link Tunnel. The idea that in todays dollars the Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link Tunnel will cost NSW Sixteen Thousand Million Dollars is abhorent! I am keen to understand and see the Business Case for both of these projects.
I am also extremely concerned about the environmental impact. In the Beaches Link EIS you state that Burnt Bridge Creek will reduce the water flow by 96%. It will become a drain! Have you looked at alternatives to this happening? The impact this will have on the native animals is catastrophic. Are you aware of this?
Manly Dam will have a similar outcome with native animals and a polluted lake.
I would like to understand what alternatives you have investigated to stop this environmental carnage.

Please see attached document

I am a year 4 student at Cammeray Public School and I object to the project because of 3 main reasons:
1. I need to be able to grow and play where the air is clean. The tunnel project does not provide for filtered stacks, and I am worried how this will impact me. I suffer from eczema and know that is closely related to asthma. If you build this project without filtering the stacks, I will be afraid to play outside and walk to school. Why can't you filter the tunnel exhaust? There are about 800 kids at my school, and I know the exhaust stack will be next to ANZAC school which also has about 800 kids, and not far from there is North Sydney Dem and Neutral Bay schools which have at least 800 kids each. These are just the public primary schools, and there are many more private and public schools in the area. The government should be looking after the children, not making them sick.

2. I love walking through the Flat Rock Gully Reserve and playing at Tunks Park. The current construction plans for this project mean that the reserve will be destroyed, the ecosystem of the creek will be completely ruined, and I will no longer be able to enjoy the peaceful trail to the park. I love showing off Flat Rock Gully and Creek to my friends and family when they come to visit. Please see the attached pictures of me and a friend enjoying the walk through the reseve and next to the creek.

3. My home is right next to Brook Street. Already we hear all the traffic on the street. But this project will mean 60-70 double-trucks per hour will be driving past my home. That's too many. Even 60-70 per day is too many. How is this even possible? And I'm 9 now, so until I'm 17 there will be a constant stream of traffic going by and that will make it difficult for me to walk to my friend's house and to enjoy our balcony and garden areas at home. Then we're so close to Gore Hill Freeway, I think we're going to be near a ramp, which means that the tunnel won't be deep beneath our home. We will be hearing it constantly and feeling it constantly forever. How am I supposed to study and generally enjoy living at home?

For these reasons and more, I ask you to please move the entry ramp to somewhere away from my home, the schools and Flat Rock / Tunks Park. That is, if this tunnel is really necessary. If it's not necessary, then please do not build it at all!
Thank you,
XXXXXX

I strongly object to this project as per the attached letter.

Please see document I am uploading .

Please see attached submission.

My main objection to the proposed Beaches Link Tunnel is the choice of one of the five dig sites nominated, namely the site in Flat Rock Gully Northbridge, on the eastern side of Flat Rock Drive. This site is currently bushland, home to many animals and birds. It is also the site of a former rubbish tip. The current bushland was planted deliberately, to stabilize the former rubbish tip and so keep the contents under the ground, out of harm's way. Using this area as as dig site will probably be the equivalent of opening Pandora's box, for it is very likely that all types of toxins and pollutants will be released to be inhaled by all. This could be avoided by using land quite literally "over the road" on the western side of Flat Rock Drive, on land known as the Diamond Baseball Courts in the Bicentennial Reserve. The bushland and its animals and plants are being sacrificed for courts. Courts can be replaced.. Bush cannot easily be replaced.

My other great concern is the NSW Government's apparent lack of willingness to address the subject of Public Transport with respect to the Northern Beaches and so reduce the number of cars using ANY roads. Many plausible suggestions have been put forward regarding establishing Transport Hubs in the Northern Beaches and linking these to other transport hubs and links already in existence. Such would allow residents of the Northern Beaches to travel easily anywhere in Sydney and beyond without car use, without paying road tolls to private enterprise, without causing pollution etc. etc. The NSW Government's current position is to not allow any public transport in the Beaches Link Tunnel. Why??

My position remains unchanged. I wish to add further comments

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