Inner West Greenway’s most amazing features revealed

The completion of a 5.5km Greenway running through Sydney’s inner west has edged closer to reality, with the release of detailed plans showing how some of the route’s trickiest construction elements will be resolved.

The Cooks to Cove Greenway will take advantage of under-utilised land alongside existing light rail and waterway corridors to create a safe active transport and environmental route between the Cooks River and Sydney Harbour.  

However, the project has been held-up for many years while engineers tried to work out how to get the pathway to pass under several major roads which crossed these corridors. 

The newly-released plans and artist’s impressions now finally show how this will be done.

One of the most amazing elements of the Greenway is expected to involve opening, for the first time, public access to an area under the main western railway line at Lewisham. 

This cavernous, dark and damp area is normally haunting and quiet – with the silence occasionally broken by the rushing of trains to and from the city. It’s a place for quiet reflection in the middle of a bustling city.

This area will now be accessed via a tunnel which runs under Longport St, at Lewisham. The path will include a cover to protect the area’s little-known micro-bat colony, which happens to also like the darkness and dampness.

Separately, for many years, engineers have been working on a solution to get the Greenway to cross Parramatta Rd, one of Sydney’s busiest thoroughfares. 

To cross this road, cyclists currently need to traverse a steep and tedious pathway and bridge, which is difficult to complete without stepping off your bike.

Pedestrians need to either take a lift, or a staircase, then walk across the same bridge.

The newly-released artist’s impression reveals the safe and easy Parramatta Rd crossing of the future. 

A walking and bicycle pathway will be constructed under Parramatta Rd, using an existing tunnel which carries a stormwater drain (the historic Hawthorne Canal).

Using this pathway will be yet another unique experience – it will be basically a little like floating on water, but doing this while inside a quiet tunnel.

In addition, here’s also how the crossing of Constitution Rd at Johnson Park, Dulwich Hill will look, with the existing famous Dulwich Hill Rocket Ship to be untouched.

The impetus for the Greenway came from a huge community campaign – dating back to at least 2008 – to turn the former Rozelle to Dulwich Hill goods line (now light rail line) into a sustainability and active transport corridor. 

After the NSW Government withdrew funding for the project in September 2011, the Friends of the Greenway group helped organise a protest rally (also in 2011) attended by 500 people at Johnson Park. 

Soon after, the Friends group organised a petition signed by 10,000 people which forced a debate on the issue in the NSW Parliament in 2012.

In 2016, the NSW Government back-flipped and announced funding for the Greenway.

Apart from encouraging cycling and walking, the corridor rejuvenation is also hoped to provide a habitat for the endangered Long-Nosed Bandicoot (which has historically occupied the corridor) and provide additional open space in the crowded Inner-West.

In August last year, the NSW Government announced an additional $9.8 million grant for the Greenway, which was supplemented by an additional $3.9 million grant from Inner West Council, to respond to rising costs.

On-street works have already been completed, including measures to give priority to cyclists over cars and environmental improvements.

The Inner West Greenway, when complete, will not be perfect.

There will not be tunnels under two road crossings – at Old Canterbury Rd and Hercules St at Dulwich Hill. And some locals are unhappy that the pathway will run through bushcare areas.

However, the fact that in-corridor aspects of the project are about to begin construction, after a long community campaign, should be celebrated.

Feedback on the draft detailed design plans for the Greenway’s central and southern in-corridor missing links is open until 3 May at https://yoursay.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/greenway