Southern Arterial Route
The Southern Arterial Route is a proposed and partly implemented arterial road corridor in inner city Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Conceived in the 1970s and 1980s after a cancelled urban expressway scheme, the arterial corridor was partially implemented in the 1980s-1990s as a high capacity one-way pair through the now high-density suburbs of Ultimo, Chippendale, Redfern and Waterloo.
The current route design as a paired one-way road system was first formally detailed in the 1987 Environmental Impact Statement for the Department of Main Roads Pyrmont - Alexandria traffic management proposal, though there were similar proposals in 1969 and 1983.
The project attracted significant community opposition and remains incomplete, with later proposals either to extend the arterial south or remove it. Only two of three stages were completed due to strong community opposition. Stage 1 covered Ultimo to St Paul's Place / Cleveland Street. Stage 2 was originally planned to connect St Paul's Place / Cleveland Street to Bourke Road, Alexandria, however, was only completed to Henderson Road. Stage 3 was cancelled in 1993.
In the decades since there have been numerous proposals to extend the one-way pair further south, or partially revert it to two-way operation. Parallel underground motorways, heavy rail and metro lines have been completed since the original proposal.
Directly adjacent to the arterial route, Waterloo station opened in 2024, and the Waterloo renewal project will build over 3,000 new apartments.
By 2030, Green Square to the south of the corridor will be the densest urban area in Australia.
The Sydney Morning Herald has covered the project in detail, with articles covering the project proposals, road opening, residents, council and editorial backlash, views by political figures, on funding announcements or mentions in passing.
Route
The current route is a One-way pair from Pyrmont to Waterloo.In the southbound direction, this route takes Harris Street, Regent Street, and Botany Road. In the northbound direction, the route takes Henderson Road, Wyndham Street, Gibbons Street, Regent Street, Cleveland Street, Abercrombie Street and Wattle Street.
At Regent Street north of Cleveland Street, the route combines into a two-way road and later splits again.
At Henderson Road, outside Waterloo station, the route combines from a one-way pair into two-way roads at a dogleg intersection.
Origins and early road planning for the corridor (1930s-1970s)
County of Cumberland planning scheme
Prior to plans for the one-way pair, there were plans for a large surface expressway in parallel to the future corridor of the Southern Arterial Route. Plans for a major expressway along this alignment were perhaps first touted from 1938. The County of Cumberland planning scheme, gazetted in 1951, depicted the Southern Expressway as a major expressway running south from Ultimo.Early investigations underpinning the 1951 Plan were in fact undertaken more than a decade earlier by the then Department of Main Roads. The investigations were detailed in a report entitled "Main Road Development Plan for Sydney Metropolis and County of Cumberland - Part 1 Investigations Relating to the Present and Future Extent and Pattern of the Metropolis".
The DMR commenced surveys of land use, population densities and traffic flows in 1943. In 1945, it issued a report titled the "County of Cumberland Main Road Development Map". When the Cumberland County Council was formed in 1946, it used some of the data collected by the DMR.
The Cumberland County Council plan did not differ greatly from that produced by DMR. The DMR's road planning "required little alteration" and was "apparently incorporated with little alteration" into the Cumberland County Council's plan in 1948.
Botany Road and Regent Street widening
In 1956, a government gazette approved the widening of Botany Road and Regent Street between Henderson Road and Cleveland Street.In 1971 the City of Sydney Planning scheme was gazetted, based on the County of Cumberland planning scheme. This added a road reservation for Botany & Regent Street to be widened to 25.6 metres, allowing the road to be widened from a 4 lane to 6 lane road.
'Proposed Truck Route' plan of 1969
The "Proposed Truck Route" plan of 1969, prepared by Cameron and McNamara, was almost identical to the Arterial/Gateway/Distributor/Link announcements published in the two years prior. This truck plan included a one-way pair from Ultimo to Bourke Road, with a dashed line for a new road directly from Gibbons Street at Lawson Street to near Abercrombie Street.F6 Southern Expressway
By 1970, the City of Sydney Planning Scheme map showed an expressway parallel on the west side of the future Southern Arterial Route corridor. A detailed map for Camperdown, Darlington, Forest Lodge, Glebe and Ultimo included a shaded area for the Southern Expressway - requiring the demolition of wide tracts of buildings.The 1974 Sydney Area Transportation Study recommended retaining the urban expressways.
The February 1976 UTAC report made several recommendations including that "Construction of the first stage of the North Western Expressway be completed as the replacement route for the present Pyrmont Bridge, but further construction west of Darling Harbour be suspended and suitable links to the existing street network be developed". These links were described in the Glebe Island Arterial Environmental Impact Statement, which also stated "separate investigation into the possibility of upgrading the southern approaches to the Glebe Island Arterial by making Harris Street and Wattle Street a one way pair over part of their length is presently in hand and does not form part of this E.I.S.".
Cancellation of the parallel F6 Southern Expressway corridor
By 1974, the City of Sydey described uncertainty over expressway plans were causing "increasing blight" in west Chippendale.On the 23rd February, 1977 the Wran Government announced it would abandon significant plans for urban expressways in Sydney.
The corridor reservation from the city to Huntley Street, Alexandria was eliminated but the corridor from that point to Tempe was retained.
The DMR investigated a number of alternatives to the Southern Expressway following the Wran government cancellation of urban freeway corridors.
Early plans for the one-way pair arterial (1970s-1980s)
1974
In 1974 the City of Sydney Council recommended a Southern Arterial route as an alternative to the F6 Southern Expressway reservation.. The council action priority was to investigate a 4 lane, grade separated road. It was proposed to utilise the land of the Metropolitan Goods and Main Western railway lines, rather than the current one-way pair model.This proposal almost exactly matched the recommendation made by the Sydney Area Transportation Study study, which was to extend the Western Distributor as a 4-lane freeway through Ultimo to Cleveland Street, with construction from 1981 to 1990. The construction of the Sydney Entertainment Centre later made this route "difficult to achieve".
1980
The 1980 City of Sydney Strategic Plan encouraged comprehensive studies of a Southern Arterial from Day Street to South Sydney.The 1980 short term road hierarchy recommended swapping the 1979 designation of Harris Street as a minor arterial road and Wattle Street as a Major arterial road, and to upgrade Harris Street as an interim Southern Arterial. The Longer Term Road Heirarchy recommended Development of a Southern Arterial.
The 1980 City of Sydney Strategic Plan described the lack of this road as an obvious omission from state government plans. It stated that the "excess capacity in the ultimate North Western Freeway upper level roadways" could be utilised by the construction of a Southern Arterial. It claimed a grade separated route would be required in the longer term and requested the Department of Main Roads to undertake preliminary planning "as soon as possible."
Corridor options for the route included:
- using the Darling Harbour Goods Yard railway corridor
- a one-way pair using Harris and Jones or Wattle Streets
- an elevated expressway or cut-and-cover tunnel Jones Street, with grade separation at Broadway and Cleveland Street, and a new bridge crossing the railway lines at Redfern
- further west utilising the Johnston Creek County Road route
- using some part of the previously designated F6 Southern Freeway corridor
The Traffic Authority advised Sydney councils early in 1981 about its intent to undertake the plan. This plan also incorporated a concept of truck routes - the conclusion was that DMR roads should generally be designated as truck routes, and should be progressively upgraded to meet the criteria stated. The project was stated in the Traffic Authority's strategic document.
1981
A 1981 traffic study by Pak Poy and Kneebone recommended the function of existing arterial routes be reinforced in preference to the development of new freeway systems. A book titled "Traffic and transport in South Sydney" was also published by the South Sydney Committee of the Australian Assistance Plan in 1981.1983
In 1983, the Sydney City Council developed a Plan of Action for Environmental Improvements in the South Sydney area, recommending a one-way pair along Botany road and Wyndham Street terminating at Cleveland Street and O'Riordan Street.The Sydney City Council's revised strategic plan was published on the 6th of December 1983. The Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney called on the Federal Government to fund the construction of a southern arterial road from "Darling Harbour to the industrial areas of South Sydney and Port Botany.
The route was proposed on the grounds of freeing up road capacity, claimed to be needed for development in Haymarket and Darling Harbour. Department of Main Roads developed a concept utilising a 2 lane road in the cutting for the Darling Harbour Goods Yard railway line, using the railway tunnel under Railway Square, with a focus on serving freight between the now defunct Port Jackson port and Botany Bay Port. It stated there was no logic building a road with more capacity due to capacity constraints of the Western Distributor and Harbour bridge to the north, and Botany Road/Regent Street to the south. It also mentioned "proposals to upgrade the Botany Bay/Regent Street arterial route."
The 1983 plan also sought state government funding for the route, and planned for construction to increase traffic capacity for the Botany Road/Regent Street arterial route and the intersection at St Pauls Place. It proposed investigation into the one-way pair proposal for Botany Road/Regent Street and Wyndham Street/Gibbons Street. It suggested a possible roundabout at St Pauls Place, or if that didn't enable enough traffic, an unconventional intersection design including a 10-lane wide intersection with 2 hook turn lanes in each west-west direction and 6 centre through lanes.
It rationalised a one-way pair conversion of Botany Road, Regent Street and Wyndham Street/Gibbons Street from Lawson Square to Green Square as a cheaper alternative to acquiring and demolishing many Redfern buildings to widen Botany Road/Regent Street. The widening was estimated to cost around $12 million, with the estimated cost of the one-way scheme to be $1.2 million. It did not discuss any social or environmental cost of widening the road, only the financial cost of property acquisition. It stated this one-way scheme would increase traffic levels on Wyndham Street/Gibbons Street by approximately 50%.