By ANNA USHER

If you’ve spent years crawling along Military Road wondering when something – anything – would be done about it, the Minns Labor Government’s answer arrived this week in a 29-page document. And it contains no solution.

Transport for NSW released the Northern Beaches Network Review on Monday – and in the document’s own words, it “is not a replacement for the Beaches Link.”

Two years after cancelling the $10 billion tunnel, slated to run from Cammeray to Balgowlah, bypassing Military Road and the Spit Bridge, Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison’s is proposing bus priority measures and flagging a potential intersection tweak at Ben Boyd Road in Neutral Bay.

How long have we been waiting?

Longer than most people realise. Proposals to fix the Military Road – Spit Bridge corridor go back to the 1970s, when a $70 million tunnel was floated. In the 1980s, a monorail from the city to Mona Vale and a light rail from Warriewood to North Sydney were both considered and abandoned.

In 2002, another tunnel was dismissed as too expensive at $1 billion. Tenders for widening the Spit Bridge to six lanes were called in 2006, construction scheduled for 2007 – then scrapped. In 2014, Premier Mike Baird promised a $2 – 3 billion tunnel.

In 2017, Premier Berejiklian committed $77 million toward the Beaches Link, formally announced in 2020 with a promise to cut Spit Road traffic by a third.

By 2022 the Coalition had quietly shelved that too. On 8 September 2023, the Minns Government cancelled it entirely. Monday’s review is what was promised in its place.

The numbers are damning

Military Road recorded 338 crashes over the past five years – more than any other corridor in the study, ahead of the Pacific Highway (263) and Warringah Road (237). It also carries the second-highest crash rate per kilometre of any road examined.

Motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians bear the brunt – 16.7, 10.6 and 8 per cent of casualties respectively, all at or above state averages.

More than 65,000 vehicles use the corridor daily. Every morning, 43 bus routes cross the Spit Bridge – Sydney’s only remaining opening bridge – with 117 buses crossing between 8am and 9am alone. Buses in Cremorne crawl at 15km/h or below in peak periods. Sixty per cent of lower north shore residents drive to work because public transport simply doesn’t cut it.

What is proposed

Bus priority that “can be strengthened.” A possible intersection tweak at Ben Boyd Road. No details, no funding, no timeline. The document’s stated philosophy: “making better use of existing infrastructure, rather than constructing new major road links.”

What the community said

“It’s beyond a joke that successive governments of both persuasions put the project off – meanwhile residents and commuters suffer,” John Lucas wrote on Facebook.

Gav Hughes called for a metro line from Newport to North Sydney. Patricia Fini pointed the finger elsewhere: “How many years did the LNP government have to start this project? At least a decade – it was more important to refurbish stadiums.”

North Shore MP Felicity Wilson said the review confirmed what she feared. “Labor cancelled the Beaches Link Tunnel, then spent two years having a review – and now this document proves they have no solutions.”

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