The Southern Arterial Route is a proposed and partly implemented arterial road corridor in inner city Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Conceived in the 1970s and 1980s after a cancelled urban expressway scheme, the arterial corridor was partially implemented in the 1980s-1990s as a high capacity one-way pair through the now high-density suburbs of Ultimo, Chippendale, Redfern and Waterloo.

The current route design as a paired one-way road system was first formally detailed in the 1987 Environmental Impact Statement for the Department of Main Roads Pyrmont - Alexandria traffic management proposal, though there were similar proposals in 1969 and 1983.

The project attracted significant community opposition and remains incomplete, with later proposals either to extend the arterial south or remove it (revert it to two-way operation). Only two of three stages were completed due to strong community opposition. Stage 1 covered Ultimo to St Paul's Place / Cleveland Street. Stage 2 was originally planned to connect St Paul's Place / Cleveland Street to Bourke Road, Alexandria, however, was only completed to Henderson Road. Stage 3 was cancelled in 1993.

The 1993 Citizen's Response summary stated "if people count, Stage 3 of the Southern Arterial will not be built", and "on the same grounds, Stage 2 will be undone or significantly modified." It recommended that "Ideally we need a solution to the problems of Stage 2 which does not involve the evils of Stage 3.";

In the decades since there have been numerous proposals (or references to unpublished proposals) to extend the one-way pair further south, or partially revert it to two-way operation. Parallel underground motorways, heavy rail and metro lines have been completed since the original proposal.

Directly adjacent to the arterial route, Waterloo station opened in 2024, and the Waterloo renewal project will build over 3,000 new apartments. By 2030, Green Square to the south of the corridor will be the densest urban area in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald has covered the project in detail, with articles covering the project proposals, road opening, residents, council and editorial backlash, views by political figures, on funding announcements or mentions in passing.

Route

The current route is a One-way pair from Pyrmont to Waterloo.

In the southbound direction, this route takes Harris Street, Regent Street, and Botany Road. In the northbound direction, the route takes Henderson Road, Wyndham Street, Gibbons Street, Regent Street, Cleveland Street, Abercrombie Street and Wattle Street.

At Regent Street north of Cleveland Street, the route combines into a two-way road and later splits again.

At Henderson Road, outside Waterloo station, the route combines from a one-way pair into two-way roads at a dogleg intersection.

Until Stage 2, a local resident of Wyndham said street was quiet outside of the weekday peak hours and "At the weekends, you could have a picnic in the street."

Origins and early road planning for the corridor (1930s-1970s) County of Cumberland planning scheme

Prior to plans for the one-way pair, there were plans for a large surface expressway in parallel to the future corridor of the Southern Arterial Route. Plans for a major expressway along this alignment were perhaps first touted from 1938. The County of Cumberland planning scheme, gazetted in 1951, depicted the Southern Expressway as a major expressway running south from Ultimo.

Botany Road and Regent Street widening In 1956, a government gazette approved the widening of Botany Road and Regent Street (Main Road No. 170) between Henderson Road and Cleveland Street.

In 1971 the City of Sydney Planning scheme was gazetted, based on the County of Cumberland planning scheme. This added a road reservation for Botany & Regent Street to be widened to 25.6 metres, allowing the road to be widened from a 4 lane to 6 lane road.

'Proposed Truck Route' plan of 1969

The "Proposed Truck Route" plan of 1969, prepared by Cameron and McNamara, was almost identical to later Arterial/Gateway/Distributor/Link announcements. This truck plan included a one-way pair from Ultimo to Bourke Road (Green Square), with a dashed line for a new road directly from Gibbons Street at Lawson Street to near Abercrombie Street.

F6 Southern Expressway

By 1970, the City of Sydney Planning Scheme map showed an expressway parallel on the west side of the future Southern Arterial Route corridor. A detailed map for Camperdown, Darlington, Forest Lodge, Glebe and Ultimo included a shaded area for the Southern Expressway - requiring the demolition of wide tracts of buildings.

The 1974 Sydney Area Transportation Study recommended retaining the urban expressways.

The February 1976 UTAC report made several recommendations including that "Construction of the first stage of the North Western Expressway be completed as the replacement route for the present Pyrmont Bridge, but further construction west of Darling Harbour be suspended and suitable links to the existing street network be developed" (4d). These links were described in the Glebe Island Arterial (Anzac Bridge) Environmental Impact Statement, which also stated "separate investigation into the possibility of upgrading the southern approaches to the Glebe Island Arterial by making Harris Street and Wattle Street a one way pair over part of their length is presently in hand and does not form part of this E.I.S.".

Cancellation of the parallel F6 Southern Expressway corridor

By 1974, the City of Sydney described uncertainty over expressway plans were causing "increasing blight" in west Chippendale.

On the 23rd February, 1977 the Wran Government announced it would abandon significant plans for urban expressways in Sydney.

The corridor reservation from the city to Huntley Street, Alexandria was eliminated but the corridor from that point to Tempe was retained.

The DMR investigated a number of alternatives to the Southern Expressway following the Wran government cancellation of urban freeway corridors.

Early plans for the one-way pair arterial (1970s-1980s) 1974 In 1974 the City of Sydney Council recommended a Southern Arterial route as an alternative to the F6 Southern Expressway reservation.. The council action priority was to investigate a 4 lane, grade separated road. It was proposed to utilise the land of the Metropolitan Goods and Main Western railway lines, rather than the current one-way pair model.

This proposal almost exactly matched the recommendation made by the Sydney Area Transportation Study (SATS) study, which was to extend the Western Distributor as a 4-lane freeway through Ultimo to Cleveland Street, with construction from 1981 to 1990. The construction of the Sydney Entertainment Centre later made this route "difficult to achieve".

1980 The 1980 City of Sydney Strategic Plan encouraged comprehensive studies of a Southern Arterial from Day Street to South Sydney.

The 1980 short term road hierarchy recommended swapping the 1979 designation of Harris Street as a minor arterial road and Wattle Street as a Major arterial road, and to upgrade Harris Street as an interim Southern Arterial. The Longer Term Road Hierarchy recommended Development of a Southern Arterial.

The 1980 City of Sydney Strategic Plan described the lack of this road as an obvious omission from state government plans. It stated that the "excess capacity in the ultimate North Western Freeway upper level roadways" could be utilised by the construction of a Southern Arterial. It claimed a grade separated route would be required in the longer term and requested the Department of Main Roads to undertake preliminary planning "as soon as possible."

Corridor options for the route included:

using the Darling Harbour Goods Yard railway corridor a one-way pair using Harris and Jones or Wattle Streets an elevated expressway or cut-and-cover tunnel Jones Street, with grade separation at Broadway and Cleveland Street, and a new bridge crossing the railway lines at Redfern further west utilising the Johnston Creek County Road route using some part of the previously designated F6 Southern Freeway corridor

The Traffic Authority of NSW started the Sydney Road Hierarchy Plan (SRHP) in 1980, and was anticipated to be completed in June 1982. The Traffic Authority advised Sydney councils early in 1981 about its intent to undertake the plan. This plan also incorporated a concept of truck routes - the conclusion was that DMR roads should generally be designated as truck routes, and should be progressively upgraded to meet the criteria stated. The project was stated in the Traffic Authority's strategic document (June 1980).

1981

In 1981 there was a perception by residents that traffic is 'getting worse'. South Sydney residents saw themselves as being under siege by traffic, particular from heavy commercial vehicles, with a worsening situation. Traffic flow statistics did not back this up generally. The Citizens' Impact Study on Traffic and Transport established that in South Sydney the majority of people surveyed felt is a major contributing cause of ill-health. "Coughs, headaches, irritability, tension, sore eyes, stress, respiratory problems and sinusitis" were the main health effects reported.

A 1981 traffic study by Pak Poy and Kneebone recommended the function of existing arterial routes (Princes Highway, Botany Road and Mitchell Road/McEvoy Street) be reinforced in preference to the development of new freeway systems. Recommendation 4 was to support the declaration of "truck routes" composed of arterials and sub-arterials with some time-limited exceptions. It was recommended for council to "resist the construction of the Southern Freeway.

As "during the process of collecting information and receiving public submissions, little interest was expressed in the provision of cycling facilities", "consequently no serious consideration was given to the planning of cycle paths in the municipality", or to connect with adjacent land use "which could be expected" to generate cycle trips. The reservations of arterial and sub-arterial roads were to be "fully committed" to vehicular traffic.

A report titled "Traffic and transport in South Sydney" (published by the South Sydney Committee of the Australian Assistance Plan) identified that Botany Road had the highest rate of accidents [sic] of all "Main Roads" in South Sydney, with 377 crashes. Regent Street was the highest rated of "Other Streets" with 99 crashes. "Intersections with more than 18 Accidents" (over an unspecified timeframe) were "Botany Road and McEvoy Street" and "McEvoy and Elizabeth Streets" with equal 41 crashes.

1983

1983 Plan of Action for South Sydney Improvements In March 1983, the Sydney City Council developed a Plan of Action for Environmental Improvements in the South Sydney area, recommending a one-way pair along Botany road and Wyndham Street terminating at Cleveland Street and O'Riordan Street.

There was a long-standing proposal to improve the capacity of the Botany Road/Regent Street route by widening the road reserve through the City area. This was a long term proposition and would involve "extensive property resumption and road reconstruction". An "alternative low cost scheme" to improve the arterial route was outlined as a one-way pair between St Paul's Place and Green Square, New South Wales.