Additional objectives to those listed above were introduced at the Supplementary EIS for CCM's 'Long 80' proposal. Some aspects of this proposal differed from the reference project that had been approved (the Approved Activity) at the EIS stage, and put to tender. The Supplementary EIS assessed and quantified the benefits and impacts of only the proposed modifications to the Approved Activity. The planning objectives of the modifications were:
■ to enhance the environmental and transport-related benefits of the Approved Activity
■ to reduce the construction impacts of the Approved Activity
■ to maintain acceptable economic and financial outcomes.
Discouraging surface traffic, reallocating surface road space and improving public space were clearly fundamental to the development and approval of the project. These flowed from long-standing government aims, more than from any desire to make the tunnel profitable. The CCT was therefore used as part of a larger plan to improve Central Sydney.
Changes to reduce (and prevent CCT attracting more) traffic in the central east-west corridor were integral to the initial concept and its implementation by the RTA and acceptance by the DoP. Of the 73 road changes:
■ 10 related to tunnel openings onto surface roads, and
■ 33 reallocated road space to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport along the central William, Park, and Druitt Street corridor.
Eighteen of these 43 (10 plus 33) changes were developed after approval of the original design.
The financial viability of the tunnel, and the RTA's interpretation of 'no net cost to government', did however influence some important planning decisions. We discuss this in Section 4.5.