North Parramatta bus lane taking shape

Work is progressing on construction of a southbound bus lane on Church Street, North Parramatta, between Barney Street and Pennant Hills Road.

The $10 million project, fully funded by the NSW Government, will improve the reliability of buses on the high frequency bus corridor that connects Parramatta with Castle Hill and on the M60 Parramatta to Hornsby via Castle Hill Metrobus route.

The bus lane will complete a missing link on a 3km section of bus lane on Church Street between Barney Street and Harold Street.

Initial work began in March 2011 with the retrieval and documentation of heritage items near the bus stop at the corner of Factory Street and Church Street.

As part of preparatory work for the bus lane, a rural-style fence has been installed to protect the heritage value of the adjacent St Patrick's Cemetery, which is the oldest Catholic burial ground in Australia.

Features

The project is being carried out in stages and involves:

• Widening Church Street from Barney Street to Pennant Hills Road to create space for a bus lane and the shared pedestrian-cyclist path being built on the eastern side of the existing general traffic lane.
• Constructing a bus bay in Church Street near Factory Street.
• Constructing right turn bays into Factory Street for northbound and southbound traffic.
• Banning right turn movements at the intersection of Dunlop Street and Church Street and banning right turn movements from Church Street northbound into By Street and from By Street into Church Street northbound.
• Partly removing, subject to further investigation, informal parking in the road reserve on the eastern side of Church Street between Dunlop Street and Factory Street.
• Formalising parking in front of the blocks of units on the eastern side of Church Street between Factory Street and St Patrick's Cemetery.

What happens next?

The current works involve:

• Installing safety barriers and road trenching for essential services, such as water, sewerage, telecommunications and traffic lights
• Relocating power, telephone and street lighting poles
• Removing a dead cotton palm tree from the southern end of the informal parking area between Factory Street and St Patrick's Cemetery.

Some noise may be associated with this work. However, every effort will be made to minimise the impact of noise on nearby residents and businesses.

The bus lane is scheduled to be completed in late 2012, weather permitting.