nsw: Sydney s solution to traffic snarl ups officialy opened.

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-1999
nsw: Sydney s solution to traffic snarl ups officialy opened.

By Chris Fogarty

SYDNEY, Dec 19 AAP - Sydney's solution to frustrating airport-bound traffic jams opened
tonight, confirming the city's residents enduring and somewhat strange love affair with
tunnels.

And up to 60,000 people walked through the new Eastern Distributor hours before tonight's
opening to traffic.

The 1.7 kilometre, $700 million tunnel and expressway will allow traffic travelling
from downtown Sydney to bypass more than 19 sets of traffic lights and shave at least
10 minutes of the often frustrating journey to the busy international airport.

The distributor, which is six kilometres in total length, will also ease the traffic
snarls in Sydney's posh eastern suburbs.

The northbound lanes opened first at about 11.30pm, with motorists following police
vehicles, tooting their horns as they went.

Delays were caused initially by wet weather, which hampered the painting of road lines,
and final signals checks.

Thousands took the opportunity to stroll through the road tunnel, which at 24.5 metres
is the widest in the world, before the first of 60,000 daily vehicles use it at 8pm (AEDT)
tonight.

"We think there will be 50 to 60,000 people who have walked through by the end of the
day," said Rotary chairman of the tunnel walk organisation committee Peter Dunn. "We've
had a lot of young families but we've also had people dressed up in all sorts of costumes."

This is the third charity tunnel walk Rotary have organised with more than a hundred
thousand people having already walked under the Sydney Harbour tunnel and a passageway
running under Kingsford Smith International Airport.

"There does seem to be a real appetite for people in Sydney to do that," said Mr Dunn.

"There is definitely a group of people who want to walk under harbours, rivers and cities
in Sydney."

Two more huge traffic tunnels are already being planned by the State government but
Rotary will be taking a break from organising walks for now despite raising hundreds of
thousands for charity.

However not everyone is happy with the tunnelling trend. Local residents are worried
about the exhaust fumes that will be pumped out of the tunnel with environmentalists saying
the health of nearby home owners is being put in danger.

And despite the State Labor government's furious peddling of the line that the tunnel
will help them "reclaim the streets" there is growing awareness among Sydney motorists
that they will be increasingly pushed into paying the $3.00 toll as above ground roads
are closed or altered.

A spokeswoman for construction company Leightons stressed that the toll was for northbound
traffic only with southbound cars travelling on a "freeway".

AAP cf/bdm/de

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