Expressways From Everywhere
The Northern tip of Rockdale is planned as the hub of a giant expressway network under the RTA's new scheme for the M5 tollway extension. New expressways would converge on the area from the north-west (along the Cooks River Valley), from the south, (through Rockdale) and from the south-west (via the Wolli Creek Valley). These new roads would at first be linked to the city centre by General Holmes Drive and later by a network of feeder roads through Alexandria and Redfern.
The new M5 alignment has been introduced without fanfare. Knowledge of it began to filter out recently when staff at the office of 'M5 East' EIS consultants Manidis Roberts began to mention the new route to members of the public who called with inquiries. Longtime observers of the RTA had suspected a change was afoot in July, when the RTA applied to the Department of Planning for changes in special conditions applying to the environmental impact statement for the road.
Scaled down
At around the same time the RTA scaled down its preparations for a new environmental impact statement for the Eastern Distributor. This network of upgraded roads in Alexandria is intended to carry the vastly increased volumes of traffic expected after the completion of the M5 to the heart of the City and the Harbour Bridge. The authority's representatives told community groups in Alexandria that,although they had previously been pushing to complete with new impact study by late this year, they were now more relaxed about the Eastern Distributor and would resume the study next year. The RTA has postponed the Eastern Distributor study only because it will not be needed in the first stage of the new strategy.
The authority's current plan is to terminate the M5 with an 'illogical' south-easterly loop: an anomaly which could later be used to justify further extensions to make it more 'logical'. These extensions would be the RTA's long-planned F6 and the Cooks River expressways.
The authority will try to 'sell to Rockdale residents and their council by claiming that its main intention is to get heavy trucks off Rockdale's streets. Nothing could be further from the truth. The completion of the M5 is designed to 'support' sprawling, new, car-dependent suburbs on Sydney's south-western outskirts. The additional vehicles which the M5 is designed to encourage will flood the inner south-western suburbs as well as tollway access points such as Beverley Hills.
The RTA's 1989 environmental impact statement for the M5 (it was then called the F5), predicted the road would carry 60,000 vehicle movements a day. This would be a 40,000 increase on the number of vehicle movements in the last section of the M5 which now finished at King Georges road.
Urban Decay
If they were ever carried out, the RTA's plans would turn the inner-south-west into a highly [polluted urban nightmare of elevated and ground level motorways. Local streets would become a network of feeder roads and pleasant neighbourhoods would become islands cut off by rivers of concrete. Most local parks and greenspaces would be destroyed or severely degraded. Urban decay - the blight that has afflicted scores of American cities - would begin to set in across the whole area. There is an environmentally sound alternative to the RTA's plans, the AirportLink rail plan. Fortunately, this proposal can get cars off our streets and cut air pollution. Fortunately, it's backed by Rockdale council.
Canterbury council is another matter. Canterbury residents should demand that their council reverses its stand in favour of the M5 and fully backs the push for more and better public transport. With the advent of the 'new' M5 route the gloves are off. The RTA is making clear its intention to proceed with the Cooks River freeway in the not-too-distant future. Rockdale and Canterbury residents will be right to indignantly reject the RTA's plans for the region, which are barbaric and outdated. Rail is the way to go.