Traffic issues

Traffic assessment studies undertaken in 2009 show that roads surrounding the Frenchs Forest hospital site, including the major northern beaches arteries of the Wakehurst Parkway & Warringah Road, are already at or beyond their planned capacity. For example, it is not uncommon to take 30 minutes to drive the 3.5 km journey from the Skyline Shops to Forestville via the hospital site.

And with our rising population (e.g. there is talk of major new developments around the nearby Duffys Forest , Belrose, Oxford Falls and Red Hill areas) these roads will become more congested, even without a new hospital. More people = more traffic.

A new hospital at Frenchs Forest will generate enormous amounts of additional traffic – ambulances, staff, patients, visitors, suppliers and waste removal services will all need to get in and out of the hospital. The location will attract people not only from the Northern Beaches, but from other increasingly heavily populated areas, such as Chatswood, who would normally go to the North Shore hospital.

We believe that traffic will be brought to a standstill, particularly during the morning and afternoon rush-hour periods. It is hard to imagine how an ambulance will be able to get through this traffic in an emergency!

While the site has already been selected and considerable work on the proposal has already been undertaken, a detailed traffic impact study has yet to be completed. The NRMA recently wrote to Brad Hazard outlining what work should to be undertaken (click here to download). We believe this lack of planning is a major oversight!

The hospital will also require substantial space for parking, and helicopters will also need access. Massive road works have been suggested, including new flyovers, underpasses, traffic lights and link roads as well as flood mitigation on the Wakehurst Parkway. A rapid bus transit system has also been discussed, but again no formal plans have been released.

While the proposed upgrades may help assist flows around the site – it will do nothing to reduce traffic volumes – at best the traffic bottlenecks will simply move to other nearby locations.

We believe the existing Mona Vale hospital is a far more suitable location for a new level 5 hospital because it has plenty of room to grow and it has relatively good transport links. Most of the time people will be travelling against the main traffic flows particularly in the morning rush hour, when traffic tends to be at its worst. And people from Chatswood will continue to go to the North Shore hospital.

Proposed new hospital at

More Questions than answers

Traffic Issues