The first riders recently rode across the new Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway, a new addition to the Sydney bike network that is expected to encourage a surge in north-south bike traffic across the harbour. The ramp ends the decades-long challenge of bike riders lugging their bikes up 55 stairs at the northern end of Sydney’s iconic bridge. The stairs have discouraged older cyclists and those with heavier e-bikes from crossing the harbour.
The design for the new bridge was the result of a 2022 design competition won by an ASPECT Studios led design team, which includes ASPECT Studios, Collins and Turner, Design 5, Eckersley O’Callaghan, Yerrabingin, Stantec, Electrolight, Jason Wing and Maddison Gibbs (Madwings).
The three-metre-wide ramp creates a continuous north-south route across the Harbour Bridge with links into the CBD via Kent Street, out to Sydney’s east via the Oxford Street Cycleway and to the west via the ANZAC Bridge. It has been carefully designed to fit its surroundings at Bradfield Park and Milsons Point Station, with granite sourced from Moruya, the same location from which the granite for the Harbour Bridge pylons was sourced, and bronze balustrades that reflect elements of the Sydney Opera House.
The 1500 bronze balustrades for the ramp, produced mainly in Western Sydney, are made from the same alloy as the Sydney Opera House bronze, and the ramp is being painted in the heritage-listed Sydney Harbour Bridge Grey.
The ramp connects to a new cycle route extending along Alfred Street South to Middlemiss Street at North Sydney, including new crossings on Alfred Street South and Lavender Street. About 130,000 granite pavers have created an intertwining eels artwork by Aboriginal artists Jason Wing and Maddie Gibbs. The eels, which honour the connection to the area of the Gadigal and Cammeraygal people, go north and south.
Images: Courtesy of Transport for NSW