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The HarbourLink vision was created to address both the dangers when negotiating the North Sydney CBD and the major climb from the deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway along the Warringah Freeway through to the Falcon Street (Military Rd) bridge above the freeway while linking to the adjacent St Leonards Park.  The map (copyright) was produced by council's consultants, however with the announcement of the Lane Cove Tunnel Project that incorporated a 7.5km long SUP (shared user path / cycleway) from Naremburn via Epping Rd (Lane Cove) through to North Ryde, there is now the need to complete the 3km long 'missing link' through to the Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway. 

The section between Ridge St and Miller St (1.3 km long) will be designed during the financial year 2010-2011, including the underpassing both Falcon St and Ernest St but be physically separated from the adjacent freeway lanes.  This section continues past the Cammeray Golf Course, where construction was completed in 2010.  Future works are expected to involve a SUP bridge over the Brook St entry ramp then proceeding to the recently completed SUP (shared user path) ..... more details below.  The draft PricewaterhouseCoopers / SKM $168,037 study into this 'missing link' was  released in September 2010. 

HarbourLink was developed using RTA and North Sydney Council maps of the Warringah freeway corridor, incorporating detailed height information.  The HarbourLink project would extend the existing Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway along the railway alignment then pass beneath the railway line to the southern end of the extension of Blue Street (old tramway reservation).

From here, as well as connecting to the North Sydney CBD, the structure would curve above the adjacent Pacific Highway as well as nearby High Street, then Mount Street, proceeding to the reservation at the end of Berry Street, where there would be a second connection to the CBD.

HarbourLink from the eastern extremity of Berry St would return to be an elevated structure, gently curving partly left above the Berry Street freeway on-ramp (northbound) to the western reservation of the freeway, then cut into the rockface towards the Ridge Street pedestrian bridge (a shared facility above the freeway) proceeding beneath it with a 2.5m clearance (as per the national standard). HarbourLink would then fork, connecting to the:

1. adjacent St Leonards Park.  Here cyclists have reached the lower North Shore plateau, offering generally well-graded terrain for many kilometres

2. the principal Regional Bicycle Route, which would overpass the freeway to its eastern side, then link to the Falcon Street bridge about 400 metres distant, where the construction of a new shared ped/cycle bridge over the freeway would be required.  While an underpass of Falcon St has been completed, it needs to be lowered to freeway level to reduce the steep grade.  The route then proceeds to a future underpass of the Ernest Street bridge just 250 metres to the north.

From Ernest Street, the principal route is just over a kilometre short of the recently completed 7.5km long shared user path (SUP) facility which links Naremburn through Lane Cove to North Ryde - part of the Lane Cove Tunnel Project.  These facilities known as Regional Bicycle Routes (RBR), include a proposed branch along the railway corridor to Chatswood station.  These RBRs form a vital network of bike routes that link into existing local bike routes.

Bus Layover:  The 'Bus Layover' constructed immediately east of Miller St extends towards the Miller St (city-bound) entry-ramp and is about 500 metres to the NW of Ernest St.  The layover includes the excavation of a major sandstone rockface.  This $10M project was constructed as a result of buses storing on the freeway (city-bound) shoulder in the lead-up to the afternoon peak hours, creating potentially dangerous conditions.  While we raised design aspects with North Sydney Council, the RTA and NSW Transport and Infrastructure requesting that the SUP be incorporated into this design we were unsuccessful.  The RTA/RMS has provided a separated 2-way SUP adjacent to the northern side of the Miller St entry ramp, which connects to the freeway shoulder and the existing Cammeray Golf Course shared path.  In the future the SUP is expected to underpass the Miller St (city-bound) entry -ramp proceed past the bus layover then further west adjacent to the freeway.

In April 2010 the RTA drilled 7 exploratory holes between the Brook St and West St, hopefully in preparation for the design then construction of a SUP bridge over the Brook St entry ramp connecting through to the bus layover and further south.