The M5 East EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) has been released. Comments on the EIS are being accepted until 29 January.
The impact on Alexandria is every bit as bad as we had feared. If anything, it’s worse than expected.
From about 2019, the M5 will terminate at Sydney Park. When complete, it will dump over 100,000 cars into our suburbs, much of which will end up on local streets. This is not by accident – it is intentional.
60,000 vehicles are expected to use Euston Road. This is more traffic than uses Victoria Road. It is almost ten times the traffic that Euston Road currently handles.
An extra lane in each direction will be added to Euston Road. The north-bound lane will go as far as Maddox Street, where it becomes a new left-hand turn lane, channelling traffic off Euston Road and into Maddox Street. [Update: see below]
It will no longer may or may not be possible to turn right onto Sydney Park Road from either Euston or Mitchell Roads. There will be a right-hand turn into Huntley Street from Euston Rd, and it may be possible to reach the Princess Highway by driving all the way around Sydney Park. It seems likely that the intent is to ‘encourage’ drivers to use WestConnex instead of the free alternatives. [Update: see below]
136 parking spaces will be lost on Euston Road, mostly west of Sydney Park Road. 32 parking spaces will be lost on Huntley Street. During construction, workers at the St Peters interchange are predicted to need up to 320 parking spaces. Workers will be ‘encouraged’ to park on-site, to take public transport, or to car-pool.
As well as losing parking on Euston Road, 12 meters is being taken off the south edge of Sydney Park. This will wipe out the large gums on the south side of the park and bring significant volumes of traffic 15 meters closer to the Alan Davidson Oval – a popular venue for children’s sport.
We know that Green Square is already generating significant traffic, and that this will increase, and that Ashmore Estate will also generate significant traffic. The EIS does not consider the traffic that will be generated by Ashmore Estate and Green Square will be a problem, because they expect they will finish construction before Ashmore Estate and Green Square reach full capacity. They are not concerned with the effects on the local road system that will result from the construction of WestConnex.
Comments on the EIS are being accepted until 29 January
Update: Contradicting the Traffic and Transport Appendix, Page 152 of Urban Design does not include the extra left turn lane at Maddox St, show that right hand turns into Sydney Park Road will continue to be possible, and shows that Maddox St will continue to be blocked off.
We have been told that the text is basically correct – there will one right hand turn lane but it will be for buses only.
Alexandria Residents' Action Group 
Great post Ben. Horrific impacts indeed. Small correction Alan Davidson oval. Also the text box for Euston no right turn to Syd Park Rd needs correction. Cheers, Andrew
Thanks Andrew. Both fixes made. The small print in the image still says Donaldson, but that’s RMS’s mistake – I won’t try to fix it at this point.
Hi
Well that sounds like a nightmare. I live on the corner of Maddox and Lawrence St. Where is the traffic funneled after it turns left onto Maddox from Euston? Onto Mitchell?? That will ruin our nice suburban streets 😦
Regards, Katie
Mitchell is already pretty full. You have to assume that it’s going to back up and then drivers will ratrun down the lanes. And then the RMS will say the solution to the problem they caused is more of the same: widen Mitchell, widen Euston further, widen Copeland and Swanson and Coulson. And wipe out all parking.
RMS live in this mindset where, if only you could provide just one more road, then that will cure the congestion. The rest of the world has moved on, there have been so many studies that show that more roads means more congestion, not less. But RMS refuse to accept that.
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Have been looking at Euston especially Euston McEvoy Lachlan Rd reservation can you show where map 13 is in the M5 EIS vol etc can’t find it
Hi Colin. The base figure is from Vol-2A App-D-Properties-affected-by-acquisition – see http://m5eis.org/2015/12/21/vol-2a-app-d-properties-affected-by-acquisition-2/ The annotations are mine, based on what’s said in new-m5-eis_vol-2b_app-g_traffic-and-transport.pdf.
page 39:
Sydney Park Road / Mitchell Road intersection – banned right turn from Mitchell Road into Sydney Park Road. Due to the banned right turn southbound at the Sydney Park Road / Euston Road intersection, it is possible some through traffic could occur through the area to the west of Euston Road. By restricting the right turn at this location, this movement would be prohibited for general traffic. This could also be achieved through alternative measures outside of the modelling area. Roads and Maritime will monitor the situation in this area after opening.
page 243
As a result of the project, Euston Road would be widened to three northbound and three southbound lanes between Campbell Road and Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street. All lanes would be between three and 3.5 metres wide.
The northbound and southbound lanes would be separated by a central turning lane, which would allow righthand turning movements for traffic travelling in both directions. Near the intersection of Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street, the central turning lane would be replaced with a median and a right-hand turning lane for northbound traffic. This right-hand turning lane would allow movements into Huntley Street for northbound traffic
page 244:
Euston Road between Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street and Maddox Street
North of the intersection with Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street, Euston Road would be widened to provide single turning lanes at Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street and at Maddox Street. The additional turning lanes at Sydney Park Road / Huntley Street would connect with an upgrade of that intersection (refer below). An additional left-hand turning lane would be provided at Maddox Street for northbound traffic.
See what you have done put Sydney Park Road / Mitchell Road etc on to map 13 acquisitions. This fits with WestCON wanting to reduce traffic on KIng St due to clearway protests you are correct about massive increase on Euston Rd made worse by right turn restrictions.
The reserve corridor Euston McEvoy Lachlan is not considered as part of WestCON but it is obvious it will be taken up. Why it is not included extra cost to westCON and more acquisitions
Hi Ben, Just checking, when you say “There will be a right-hand turn into Huntley Street from Euston Rd”, you mean for northbound traffic only? There’s no plan to remove the blockage for the western section of Huntley, and allow a turn into it for southbound traffic, am I correct?
Also, if, as you say, there will be no right turn from Euston to Sydney Park Rd, then that seems to contradict the lane markings on p152 of Appendix L.
Hi Andrew,
Good find. Now I don’t know what they’re planning. The diagram does indeed show that Huntley St will continue to be blocked, and also seems to show right hand turns allowed in all four directions allowed at Sydney Park/Euston.
That doesn’t match the text:
page 39 of Traffic says “banned right turn southbound at the Sydney Park Road / Euston Road intersection”.
If I had to guess, I’d guess the diagram is right and the text is wrong.
And if the diagram is correct, then that means I’ve misunderstood this sentence: “right-hand turning lane would allow movements into Huntley Street for northbound traffic”. I’d assumed that ‘northbound traffic’ meant north on Huntley – but probably it should be read as traffic heading south (south-east) on Huntley, having previously been heading north (north-east) on Euston. It would be much clearer if they’d used east/west.
Looking at Euston/Maddox, the diagram shows the extra lane has been merged away before reaching Maddox.
Again, that doesn’t match the text:
“An additional left-hand turning lane would be provided at Maddox Street for northbound traffic.”
Here, I suspect the text may be closer to the truth than the diagram.
Euston can’t handle 60,000 cars with two lanes.
Whatever the current thinking is, there’s going to be enormous pressure to widen it at least as far as Maddox, and probably a lot further.
Coulson st can not be widened. You have the railway bridge which needs to be rebuilt then you have Verve right on the street and heritage listed buildings at brightwells. At the other end it is one way and is already quite busy with people running through to beat the right turn off King to Sydney Park Road.
These changes will mean it is next to impossible to get to Coulson St apart from coming down Mitchell and fountain. This is such a typical right wing Liberal project, corrupt as and poorly thought out with loads of debt.
Hi Chris, As per Andrew’s comment and my reply, the text in Traffic doesn’t match the diagram in Urban Design. Assuming the diagram is right and the text wrong, that takes some of the pressure off Huntley/Coulson. There’ll still be M5 traffic rat running, but at least the Sydney Park Road traffic won’t be displaced.
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Hi, we’ve had confirmation that the text is right and the diagram is wrong. Right hand turn from Euston into Sydney Park will only be permitted for buses. So there will be one right hand turn lane, but buses only.
Does anyone know what was the decision was on Maddox / Euston Road intersecton? Will there be an extra lane turning left into Maddox? The map seems to show down to only 2 lanes at the intersection of Maddox.
I don’t think we know yet. The original proposal was for a lane turning into Maddox, but at that stage, they hadn’t yet admitted that their plan was to widen the road through to Anzac Parade, or further.