Bulli business owners fear that traffic improvements will ruin them, Caitlin Sloan reports

Businesses in Bulli’s township have condemned Transport for NSW’s proposal to extend clearway hours along Princes Highway, citing concerns for pedestrian safety and plummeting trade.

In April, the transport authority confirmed it will be progressing with the implementation of a range of traffic improvement measures outlined during a community consultation period in June and July of 2021.

As well as new clearway hours, the changes include prohibiting right turns in and out of Station Street, the addition of a right-turn arrow at the Park Road lights, and new parking spaces and carpark upgrades on Railway and Station streets.

Owner of Stokes Lane Cafe Sam Dodds says that the extension of clearway hours poses added risks to pedestrians, with the suburb’s main strip already likened to an expressway with heavy traffic and freighters on weekdays.

“That truck was just going 80kph through a township – it’s a freeway at the moment because of the clearway,” he said.

“People are flying along here [and] someone is going to be killed.”

The Fitz Cafe and Bar owner Tom Bailey agrees, arguing the clearways are an accident waiting to happen. “During clearway hours when there is no buffer of parked cars next to the kerb, I have noticed cars flying past well over the 60kph speed limit,” he said.

“[It’s] a significant hazard for pedestrians, particularly young children.”

A TfNSW spokesperson said: “The proposed changes are to implement the current clearway times in both directions during both the morning and afternoon peak periods on weekdays and in the middle of the day on Saturdays in the southbound direction.”

The cafe owners say the new clearway times – 6.30-9.30am and 3-6pm on weekdays and 11am-1pm on Saturdays and public holidays – will wholly overlap with their peak trading hours.

“They’re taking the carpark from this side of this business community and proposing carparking hundreds of metres away – it’s ludicrous,” Sam said.

“Have you ever walked 500 metres for a takeaway coffee?

“It’s going to affect this area, jobs are going to be lost, and people’s lives are going to be changed from what’s going on.”

Tom said: “After the last few years local businesses have had to endure, this might be the last straw that breaks them.”

Claiming that Transport for NSW’s current traffic improvement plan offers remiss, short-term solutions to Bulli’s congestion problem, business owners say that the answer is building the Memorial Drive extension to bypass Bulli.

“What they’re proposing – to alleviate the congestion issues with clearways and no-right turns and traffic modifications – all of those things are a band-aid solution,” Bulli Heritage Hotel licensee Andy Bell said.

“Given the fact that the inevitability is that our community is going to grow and expand, and more people are going to be in the area … it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s maybe buying a couple of years before we’re right back to where we started.”

During the traffic improvement consultation process last year, TfNSW received 1057 overall community suggestions. Building Bulli bypass, although considered to be out of the project’s scope, came out on top, suggested by 65.2 per cent of people. The next most popular suggestion was traffic light phasing (11.4 percent).

The steep inclines and complex geology of the Illawarra escarpment have always made road building in the region a costly challenge.

Andy Bell believes TfNSW is unwilling to allocate funding to a bypass’s development, despite the NSW Government earmarking a corridor between Bulli Pass and Memorial Drive for potential infrastructural expansion in the mid-70s.

“The solution has been in front of us, and it’s been in planning since the 70s, they’ve got all the key parts of the puzzle ready to go, they just don’t want to write the cheque and green-light it,” Andy said.

Sam Dodds said he has not heard from Transport for NSW since last year. “All they want to do is change some signs, spend a couple of thousand dollars, wash their hands of it.

“It’s a sad time to be in Bulli and have such big decisions being made by people who don’t live here and don’t care about our beautiful area.”

When will new clearways come in?

The proposed new clearway hours are part of traffic measures planned for Bulli that Transport for NSW says will enhance safety, reliability and connectivity.

“Transport for NSW will provide a preliminary update of the proposed works in October and a more comprehensive update, including a project timeline, by mid-November 2022,” a spokesperson said.

“Clearways have always been part of the proposal as presented to the community in June and July 2021 and will only be implemented once all of the parking offsets have been provided.”

TfNSW’s focus is on improving the existing road network. On calls for a Bulli bypass, the spokesperson said that TfNSW is “aware of community interest in an extension of Memorial Drive to connect to Bulli Pass”.

More info: nswroads.work/bullithirroul

Further discussion: Read Ben Wollen’s Build Bulli Bypass opinion piece and the interview with councillor Mithra Cox