This site is a read-only archived copy of the site KissYourPathGoodbye.com from September 2018, prior to the domain name expiring.
On 1 May 2018, the Roads and Maritime Services released an updated design for the Rankin Park to Jesmond bypass, and it is good news for cyclists and pedestrians!
The Jesmond cycleway is to be retained as a grade separated path with a combination of a bridge over the entry/exit lanes and a short tunnel under the bypass.
More details are in the April 2018 project update from the RMS.
In 2020, Transport for NSW released an update which made further improvements to the design of the shared path. Now instead of going through a tunnel under the north-south roadway, it goes under the bridge. This is much better for visibility and safety as the path is now entirely in the open air.
Graphic of the proposed shared path bridge/tunnel at the northern interchange, from the RMS April 2018 update. [Superseded by an amended design in 2020]
This is disgraceful, they had a rep at the NCC cycling working group to discuss ways of accomodating cyclists, was that just a farce.
They still are looking into alternatives to the road crossing from Jesmond Park towards Wallsend. I went and asked a question about this very thing at the consultation session. Given the raised nature of the bypass road, there is a plan to potentially have a raised bike path go over the first road and a bike path tunnel through the raised earth of the bypass. I agree, let’s all makes submissions that support something like this!
I hope that it is actually true that they are “still looking into alternatives” – unfortunately that is pretty much the same message the RMS rep told me back in May when they had a display at Stockland mall – they gave the impression that they were going to do something about it, and so I was astounded to find in the November EIS that they hadn’t changed a thing since May.
Lachlan,
I went to the info session yesterday and rec’d the glossy and spoke to someone there. I also had a bit of a look at the info on the net etc.
The glossy has an artists impression on page 10 and it’s a bit hard to tell if it’s exact but the section of cycleways taken away is about where the southern traffic goes under the main raised bypass. To me a bridge either side going over the entry and exit roads cutting through under the built up bypass main road would be acheiveable.
It also got me thinking about a better link for the jesmond bushland and blackbutt reserve. The southern interchange doesn’t look too seamless if you were riding/walking/ school excursion or sport event in the future. It would be nice to think this could be done now while the cash for the project is available.
I was thinking of a letter to the herald but if you can arrange someone or yourself to get an opinion piece in next week it will highlight the concerns and would also mention the end date 16/12 for submissions.