The WestConnex Problem (Rozelle Interchange and Parramatta Road)

The WestConnex is one of Australia's biggest road transportation projects. It has been slowly opened over the past 5 years, with the final major piece of the project - the Rozelle Interchange - opening in November 2023. The opening has more or less been a disaster, with the Rozelle Interchange proving to be a poorly designed and very confusing interchange that most motorists seem to be confused by, and the poor design of merges causing nightmare-inducing levels of traffic. Furthermore, the WestConnex was once promised to revitalise and transform surface streets, in particular Parramatta Road. And yet, bold visions for the road are yet to materialise, with many slowly losing hope that they ever will. In this video, I'll explore both the Rozelle Interchange and Parramatta Road, and what the government can do to fix both of them.

English Subtitles by Dongchen Yue
Chinese Subtitles by Winnie L

Links:

Music:
Synthwave Moderator by Boomopera
Joy Of Silence by Basspartout
Dat Groove by Audionautix
Turn Up The Volume by Alexey Anisimov
Luxury by Fugu Vibes
To The Limit by SyncHits
The 80s by Summer Loops
VHS Dreams by Shane Ivers

[BuildingBeautifully]

Hey! Sorry if you noticed this video was a bit more rushed than usual. I’m actually in Melbourne (!) right now with Amy, and I made this really quickly before I got here. I just really wanted to get something out about the WestConnex before I headed off travelling for all of December. It's the fastest I've ever made a video lol. The WestConnex has been in the news a lot lately, after all!

There’s not gonna be any more videos for the rest of 2023; this is my last video. I'm travelling for all of December ✈. It’s been a great year for my channel, we’ve gone from 10, 000 subscribers to over 34, 000 and I’m really really happy about that. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me 😊😊

I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’m very keen to return in 2024, I have a lot of video ideas cooking away. So to anyone reading this right now, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, have a great holidays, and I’ll see you next year!

[TeamEXAngus]

Here in Victoria we use blue instead of green for guidance signs on toll roads. Makes confusion impossible. If your destination is on a green sign it's free and if it's on a blue sign it's tolled.

[ChrisTopher_Urbanism]

Thanks for the shoutout! As a professional Parramatta Road hater I got literal chills when you said "there remains one problem: Parramatta Road"

[mellowfellow]

WestConnex is the perfect metaphor for all the governments involved with it; in terms of the planning and design, the "procurement" process, and the resultant traffic clusterf***, even the signage. Peak NSW

[EatSleepEmpire]

Sydney doesn’t deserve to be so corruptly governed, on all levels. There’s just too much money to be scammed that no one on top can make changes for the greater good.

[listohan]

I got my driver's licence in 1963. Paramatta Road was like that then.

[markd.]

I think part of the issue is not recognising that the westconnex (and surrounding locations on the signs) are NOT the destinations of the vehicles transiting through it. Don’t tell me “drummoyne” or “city” on the signs, instead: TELL ME *where* I’m going through the maze - “Gladesville Bridge”, or “Westbound M4”.

[mtonmt]

I honestly think they should go with Melbourne and Brisbane’s approach with colored blue signs for tolls for example with the “To M8 Toll” section being colored blue with the non toll routes being green.

[The_Trojan]

Part of the issue is that in the original design much of the city bound traffic exited at Camperdown. To save money this exist was cancelled and no alternative arrangments were made. Very short sighted. The Rozelle interchange was never going to work and the City of Sydney tried to tell the LNP Government 6 years ago.

In addition there is going to be more traffic coming into the system when the extension to Kogarah is completed.

[AheadMatthewawsome]

Hi Sharath, tonight I went to an event organised by Inner West Council where members of the community spoke to Transport for NSW including Howard Collins. It was a very interesting meeting and the council is going to set up an independent advisory board made out of experts in the local community to work on fixing Victoria Road. It was a very interesting meeting and it would’ve been great if you came!

[PretentiousBreadcrumbs]

I genuinely admire how much you care about your city and how you put forward ideas on how to improve it instead of just complaining.

[allpromisesnoidea]

The only credible news source on public infrastructure i trust.

[hamishmacintyre]

Sharath. Your channel has grown and grown so much and your interest in and perception and knowledge of the subtleties of complex infrastructure projects is incredible. You have a huge future in urban and infrastructure planning. I hope that this is recognised and utilised by the appropriate authorities. I have always had a huge fascination with infrastructure and planning. And only wish that i had access to the level of technology and interface that you have today. Make the most of it. You wont regret it. And keep the project analysis and recommendation going. We need you. Best. Hamish.

[rolexcel]

People unhappily stuck in traffic should always remember “you are traffic”. People always think the traffic is everyone else.
I think the Rozelle interchange should be renamed the Gladys in honour of her contribution to badly designed roads.
I would like to see a light rail super-loop along the full length of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road with crossovers along Silverwater Road, Olympic Park and Homebush Bay Drive/ Concord Road. This would support higher densities, connect Sydney University, RPAH, WSU, Top Ryde City etc and convert these roads into something closer to boulevards with urban renewal. This could interconnect with train stations such as West Ryde and Strathfield and new metro stations such as Burwood North, Olympic Park etc

[handyandyaus]

The simple fact is that if you build more roads they are simply going to fill up with traffic. The vast majority of that traffic is cars with one person in them which is incredibly inefficient. Imagine how much mass transit could have been built for this price? The only winner out of this is Transurban, and will be for decades.

[JohnFromAccounting]

When the Sydney light rail could have been build five times over for the cost of this disaster, there's no arguing that the Rozelle Interchange is one of the biggest wastes of money in recent years. They spent $16 billion to make traffic worse.

[LavenderHaze]

oh my god it's just so exciting and makes me so happy when i see something like '1 hour ago' on a building beautifully video. a new video is just incredible i love watching sharath sharing his insane knowledge on civil engineering!!

[stoojinator]

Your channel deserves so much more attention. The content is top notch and very well presented. I've only been following you for about 6 months after finding the video you had on Peats Ridge Road. All your videos are worth watching. I really wish you all the best of luck with the channel growth. You clearly put a great deal of effort into it.

[DevynCairns]

I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on toll roads as where I'm from (Vancouver, Canada) toll roads are extremely rare, and I've also been to Japan where there really aren't any expressways that don't have tolls. I think they can be a valuable tool for fighting traffic congestion and automobile use, while also being pretty inconsequential to pay for freight or intercity buses. The key is to really make sure that people dislike driving so much on the alternatives that they're willing to either pay the toll, or do something other than drive.

IMO this means that you should toll motorways & high traffic roads, and then make sure that everything that's not in that category does not primarily prioritize traffic flow. Bus lanes, bike lanes, fewer general purpose travel lanes in general all great, traffic signals that change frequently to prioritize pedestrians, etc. Taking back the road space to create alternatives that might be better than driving at all.

Of course, it's not good when those tolls aren't going to fund public projects, and instead are just going to private shareholders. So I totally get what you're saying. If it were up to me, TransLink (our local unified transit agency, covers both public transit & major road network) would collect tolls from basically all of our bridges and use them to fund transportation projects in general.

[GregMcCall]

Those sign suggestions are really good