The Department of Planning has approved a ‘left in left out’ arrangement at Bourke Street south of William Street, East Sydney.
Motorists heading toward the city are able to turn left into Bourke Street from William Street, and left out of Bourke Street into William Street.
Vision for Bourke Street
Together with the City of Sydney the RTA has undertaken consultations to prepare a vision for Bourke Street that addresses the environmental quality of Bourke Street as a whole. The overall design for Bourke Street incorporates the left-in, left-out turns from Bourke and William streets for local traffic access.
The vision for Bourke Street in the vicinity of William Street will be designed to encourage slower, safer traffic, and allow easy pedestrian access across Bourke Street. Design measures include:
Reducing the width of part of Bourke Street to encourage traffic to travel at slower speeds.
Designing the intersection with William Street so that motorists entering Bourke Street understand the local nature of the area.
Improving the landscape quality of Bourke Street that is compatible with its mainly residential use.
The RTA held two initial community workshops: on Wednesday 26 July 2006 at the Mary McDonald Activity Centre (Woolloomooloo) and on Thursday 2 September 2006 at SCEGGS (Darlinghurst). During these workshops members of the community provided feedback on urban design measures for Bourke Street.
A third workshop was held on Tuesday 5 December 2006, during which a concept design was presented to the workshop attendees for comment. The concept design incorporated community input received to date by the RTA. The workshop attendees supported the concept design for Bourke Street but requested some changes to the bike facilities.
The RTA has finalised the design for the proposed bicycle route in conjunction with City of Sydney and BikEast and the City of Sydney is considering an RTA request to rezone the open space at the intersection of Bourke and Stanley streets for a proposed park.
A report on the Bourke Street vision, including the concept design, is available for viewing (see documents table below). Detailed design work on Bourke Street (between Corfu Street and Stanley Street) is being undertaken by the City of Sydney, funded by the RTA as part of the City of Sydney's cycling strategy. Construction of the urban design changes is expected to be completed in 2009.
Detailed investigation by the City of Sydney of Precinct 1 (between Cowper Wharf Roadway and the Eastern Distributor) is currently under way with construction scheduled to commence in the second half of 2008.
Further information is available on the City of Sydney website.
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