Just wow:
Infrastructure Australia, the nation’s independent infrastructure body, on Friday released landmark report proposing three alternative visions of Sydney in 2046, when the population is projected to hit 7.4 million.
The modelling provides a side-by-side comparison of managing Sydney’s rapid growth, either by maintaining the urban sprawl to the city’s fringes, by heavily densifying the inner city suburbs with multi-storey apartment blocks, or by a rebalancing growth across the city in medium density housing.
Under each 30-year scenario, Sydney’s infrastructure will be placed under significant pressure, and the average number of hours spent on congested roads during the morning peak will more than double.
Demand for schools will increase by about 70 per cent, while access to hospitals declines under each model. Public parks and open spaces will also become increasingly crowded.
Infrastructure Australia chief executive Philip Davies said that despite these pressures, Sydney needed to embrace growth and plan accordingly, rather than be derailed by debates about population size.
“If we want Sydney to continue to compete with global cities like Singapore and London, we need to be smarter about how we grow and develop as a city and stop having debates about how much we grow,” he said.
“There is no doubt Sydney is experiencing growing pains, but this is not a reason to reject growth.”
What can one say to that complete lunacy?
The $2 billion cost of knocking down and rebuilding Sydney’s two main football stadiums has blown out — potentially by hundreds of millions of dollars — after assessments by the government’s Infrastructure NSW.
The Australian can reveal that the business cases for the knockdown and reconstructions are set to balloon from Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s November promise of a $705 million cost put on the Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz) rebuild and a $1.25bn estimate to rebuild ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park.
After running the ruler over the numbers announced by the Premier and Sports Minister Stuart Ayres in November at the big announcement that she would rebuild both stadiums, the head of the government agency overseeing the projects, Infrastructure NSW boss Jim Betts, has found the numbers were underestimated, The Australian has been told. Business case summaries are expected to go through state cabinet and be released in about a month.
Literally a circus.
