The Lane Cove Tunnel is a twin-tunnel tollway in Sydney, New South Wales that is part of the Sydney Orbital Network. Owned by toll road operator Transurban, It connects the M2 Motorway at North Ryde with the Gore Hill Freeway at Artarmon and forms part of Sydney's M2 route, with the M2 Hills Motorway constituting the rest of the M2 route.
History
On 1 October 2003, the Lane Cove Tunnel Company was awarded a $1.1 billion contract to design and construct the tunnel to a joint venture between Thiess and the John Holland Group. The company, later known as Connector Motorways, would operate the tunnel as well as the associated Falcon Street Gateway (now Military Road E-ramp).
It was intended to replace the few kilometres motorists had to drive along Epping Road, through the suburb of Lane Cove, between two sections of freeway.
During construction, in the early hours of 2 November 2005, the roof of a ventilation tunnel for the project collapsed. The collapse caused a 10 by 10 metre crater to appear near the southbound exit ramp of the Pacific Highway. It also damaged a three-storey building at 11–13 Longueville Road, forcing the evacuation of 47 people. Emergency crews pumped 1000 cubic metres of concrete into the hole to try to stop the housing block from collapsing into it. An investigation by Workcover NSW found that the collapse was caused by geological conditions at the site, the large span width of the tunnel, and inadequacy of roof support. The proximity of the excavations to the surface resulted in the property damage.
The tunnel was opened on 25 March 2007, two months ahead of schedule, by four workers who represented the 9,000 who had worked on the Lane Cove Tunnel, the Military Road E-Ramp and the widened Gore Hill Freeway Project. Following the opening there was a one-month toll-free period (as occurred with the Westlink M7).
Connector Motorways was supposed to operate the tunnel concession until 2037. However, the project was a disaster for the company, which went into receivership in January 2010 after a string of losses. Toll road operator Transurban bought the tunnel in May 2010 for $630 million and became the new operator.
Alternative routes
Before the opening of the tunnel, motorists had to drive along Epping Road through the suburb of Lane Cove, for the few kilometres between two freeway sections. Studies by the tunnel operator indicated that the Lane Cove Tunnel would cut road travel times by up to 17 minutes and save motorists over $4 a trip.
After the completion of the consequential surface road changes in March 2008, the existing Epping Road was slated to have 24-hour bus lanes to reduce travel times for east and west bound bus services, a new bus interchange, a shared cyclist and pedestrian path, and other measures were implemented to improve public transport and local traffic in the corridor. Changes to the road network in the area had the primary aim of encourage traffic to use the new tolled tunnel instead of the untolled surface road.
Interchanges
Tolls
Controversy
Air quality
A report by CSIRO Deputy Chief of Air Science, Dr Peter Manins, concluded the ambient air quality modelling undertaken for Lane Cove Tunnel was 'best practice'. The air quality modelling indicated that the Lane Cove Tunnel would comfortably meet the air quality requirements set by the Planning Minister's Conditions of Approval. Dr Manins also said most of the air quality modelling results were in fact likely to "over estimate emission and pollution levels".
Ambient air quality is monitored at four monitoring stations nearby the tunnel's ventilation stacks. The monitoring results are published in real time on the operator's website.
The air quality readings published for particulate matter (PM10) are 24-hour averages, as required by the Planning Minister's Conditions of Approval for the tunnel. Some commentators are concerned that averaging the readings over 24 hours disguises the fact that the 50uG goal may be exceeded during peak periods, with low readings, which typically occur after midnight, effectively counteracting short-term breaches which occur during peak periods.
2007 State election
The Labor government was accused of interfering in the tunnel project to increase its re-election chances in the March 2007 election. The tunnel's expected late-2006 opening was pushed back to "January or February", closer to the poll date. In fact, that deadline was missed and the opening was announced to be 25 March, the day after the election.