Tunnel On Track: Owners
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday April 12, 2007
THE owners of the Lane Cove Tunnel are confident traffic numbers will continue to grow, despite only 12,000 cars a day using its new Falcon Street ramp at North Sydney.
Motorists will not be charged to use the tunnel or the ramp until April 26, but ramp numbers are lower than expected despite the toll freeze. It is thought 24,000 cars a day will use the ramp within 18 months, but so far the average is barely 12,000.The chief executive of Connector Motorways, Ian Hunt, said an average of about 75,000 drivers had used the tunnel each day in its first fortnight, fewer than the 80,000 the company is hoping for in the next two years.But a spokesman said that excluding the Easter long weekend increased the daily averages to more than 80,000. "You have to remember that there haven't been many work days yet," the spokesman said. Mr Hunt said he was confident the project was on track, though he acknowledged that the numbers were likely to fall slightly when tolling started."The nature of these projects is that they do take time for people to get used to them and we've been seeing steady growth right through the fortnight that we have been open, particularly on the Falcon Street gateway," he said.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald
