Problems with road realignment

It is obvious that the three options for the realignment of Woy Woy Rd featured on the front page of Peninsula News (June 25) pose serious engineering problems.

Even the most cursory examination of the contour lines shows the difficulties that would have to be overcome (including an extremely expensive tunnel required for option seven).

On the face of it, a better route would be one falling between options six and eight, where the alignment could make a fairly gradual ascent from the bottom of Bulls Hill up the slope adjoining the abattoir, before joining Woy Woy Rd at more or less the same point as the three Chamber options.

An advantage of this proposal over options six and seven is that it can connect immediately to the existing Woy Woy Rd at the bottom of Bulls Hill and does not require a new railway crossing, thus improving the Woy Woy Rd access to the Peninsula at minimal cost.

Since the cost of the railway crossing seems to be the main stumbling block to replacing the dangerous Bulls Hill route under all the other options, this would be a significant arguing point.

The railway crossing could, of course, always be built at a later date when the traffic congestion at the level crossing really justifies it.

There remains the obstacle of cutting through the National Park which is common to all realignment possibilities, but the approval process cannot take any longer than the funding and design process, so this does not seem an insuperable objection.

The idea of reconstructing the road on the present Bulls Hill alignment is totally absurd, unless enormously expensive engineering structures are going to be built to eliminate the existing grades and curves.

Even then, the rest of Woy Woy Rd would remain a relic of 19th century engineering, which is not what we need for the future of the Peninsula.

Email, 4 Jul 2012

Bruce Hyland, Daleys Point