The number of large signage gantries to be installed on the Anzac Bridge has been cut from five to two after an earlier proposal to erect more of them on the Sydney landmark triggered a storm of criticism.
While architects still have some concerns, the NSW government has warned that a failure to erect the signage risks delaying the opening by year’s end of a critical underground interchange at Rozelle for the WestConnex motorway, which will funnel motorists onto and off the Anzac Bridge.
An artist’s impression of a gantry between one of the Anzac Bridge’s A-frame structures.Credit: Transport for NSW
Under the revised plans, the state’s transport agency will erect two overhead sign bars between the bridge’s giant A-frame pylon structures at night over two weekends next month.
The agency has ditched earlier plans to install a gantry in the middle of the bridge, as well as gantries at both its eastern and western approaches. The latter would have been erected next to the Australian Digger memorial sculpture.
Last October, the then-premier Dominic Perrottet rejected transport bureaucrats’ plans to “brutalise” the harbour crossing with the five large overhead gantries, ordering them back to the drawing board.
NSW Roads Minister John Graham said it had scrapped the previous proposal and the two new signs were in line with the original design of the Anzac Bridge when it opened in the 1990s, ensuring the safety of motorists when the Rozelle interchange opened later this year.
An impression of the signage on the Anzac Bridge from a distance.Credit: Transport for NSW
“This needs to be dealt with. The former government left the taxpayer exposed. Any further delay to the installation will incur further costs to the taxpayer by the end of 2023, so it is critical we act now to ensure that there is no further impact,” he said.
The large signage for motorists is part of the design for the $3.9 billion motorway interchange at Rozelle. The cost of any delay to the interchange’s opening late this year has been estimated at $1.8 million a day.
The RSL, which has been working with the government on the Anzac Bridge project since 2021, had raised concerns about the previous plans for the gantries, especially the one that had been proposed near the Digger sculpture.
However, RSL NSW president Ray James said he was comfortable that the agency’s proposal for two gantries would not have an impact on the view or access to the statues that form part of the Anzac memorial.
Transport for NSW said the revised plans balanced the bridge’s core function as a gateway for hundreds of thousands of people travelling between the CBD and western Sydney, with its “iconic shape and form”.
“It is a challenge balancing form with function, and even our most iconic structures, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, have similar signs installed to help people navigate safely,” it said.
“The original plans and construction of the Anzac Bridge back in the early 1990s allowed for signage to be installed in this location [between the pylons] when it was needed as the road network grew in complexity.”
Sydney architect Paul Berkemeier said the new plans were an improvement on the previous gantries proposed for the bridge, but much would rest on the detail.
“It’s not as bad. One of the major issues with the original scheme was ... that it was inappropriate to have [the gantries] mid-span because it is a very different structure to the Harbour Bridge,” the former national president of the Australian Institute of Architects said.
“The proposal to align them with the two A-frames is conceptually less problematic. It is a step forward but not necessarily the right solution yet.”
The large bars between the pylons will have changeable sign technology to warn motorists of hazards and altered road conditions such as accidents. They will feature a grey mesh design in an attempt to blend in with the rest of the bridge.
Australasian College of Road Safety president Ann Williamson said two signage gantries strategically placed on the Anzac Bridge would probably be sufficient for motorists.
“You put a gantry up because you want to convey information to drivers,” she said. “What you provide has to be sufficient so that if you miss one [driving over the bridge], there is another.”
Signage gantries will also be installed on the Western Distributor motorway between the Anzac and Sydney Harbour bridges later this year. Transport for NSW declined to say how many were now likely to be erected on that stretch of the motorway because planning was still under way.
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