$38.9 million ramp to replace steps opens this summer

Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor responded to a Bicycle NSW Facebook post: “Even in walk mode it’s tricky to get my e-bike up and down the bridge so I can’t wait for the new ramp to open!”

While Graham inspected the ramp, even the fittest of cyclists paused for a rest. For those using electric bikes, which can weigh 70 kilograms or more, it was too much.

The serpentine form of the slender ramp – reflected in the design of the paving – seems to defy gravity.

“It looks like it shouldn’t stand up,” said landscape architect Sacha Coles, global design director of Aspect Studios, which worked on the project. The design tricks the eye because the ramp seemed to twist a bit like a snake. “You never see the full bulk of it.”

Opponents claimed the ramp would disrupt the park underneath. Others pushed for a spiral ramp, which would have been steeper and taken up more space.

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“The last thing we wanted was it to be a m***ive eyesore within the park,” Coles said. “We wanted to make it as light and slender as possible.”

He said the final design had been selected because it left the park untouched, grouped road, train and cycling together, and deposited cyclists to the north of the park.

When the Sydney Harbour Bridge designed by John Bradfield opened in 1932, cyclists were charged threepence, motor cars sixpence, with sheep and pigs a penny a head. Cyclists were banned from the road in 1962 when traffic increased.

Monshall said going by road would have provided for a smoother exit. “But of course, that was gobbled up by cars, because they are always priority number one in Sydney.”

Anna Bradley, Transport for NSW executive director, integration and place (east), expected it would result in an immediate increase from the average of 2000 cyclists a day before COVID-19. She said it would become a tourist attraction, surp***ing the experience of cycling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

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