Hunters Hill Council is updating its Bike Plan, and is proposing to improve the access to the Gladesville Bridge from the north (see pages 53-54). The current access is very poor, requiring a circuitous poorly signposted route down under the bridge then back up to the start of the bridge shared path, with steps at one stage. Informal routes are used by some cyclists, which involve crossing the slip lane off Burns Bay Rd from Tarban Ck and scrambling up a rough path. The solution would be a footbridge over this slip lane from Huntleys Point Park.
IWBC made a submission supporting the Council’s plan for the bridge, pointing out that a plan was put forward in 2004 but never implemented. There were many comments on the bridge on the Council’s interactive web tool (now closed for comment but can read comments) for the new bike plan. Maybe this time something will get done.
Final plan as approved in April 2021 has only called for a “visionary” link to be built sometime in the future- no funding even for a study. Council is to lobby the State Govt, as they are responsible for the bridge.
Note added in Nov 2021. Transport for NSW has announced changes to the development of its Principal Bike Network for Sydney. They had it listed as a project under Infrastructure Australia, but it hasnt progressed for years, requiring some body to develop a business plan and a design. So now they seem to be implying that they will do important links themselves, and have asked bike groups for a list of 10 projects in their areas. This is an opportunity to get Gladesville Bridge on the final priority list. IWBC has added it to our list, although it is a little out of our area. If you are a member of Bike North, support them in any attempts to get the bridge approach fixed.