As part of the Hellenic Club’s $146 million redevelopment of its Woden precinct, a bike path will be moved from the northern to the southern side of Matilda Street, where the club stands.
Peak cycling body Pedal Power ACT condemned the move, claiming it will cut off a key link for cyclists, and that there are no realistic plans for it to be redeveloped.
But the Hellenic Club states that the new location will be safer and more scenic.
The Hellenic Club, Woden, is built on a block formed by Matilda Street to the south, Bowes Street to the west, Callam Street to the east, and Launceston Street to the north.
The club’s proposed transformation of the Hellenic Precinct will include a 12-storey hotel; an ‘agora’ with restaurants, shops, bars, and ‘eat streets’; indoor recreation facilities; a health facility (day spa, gym, physiotherapy, and medical suites); an entertainment precinct; function and conferencing spaces; and a 16-storey office building.
At the same time, the ACT Government will build a new CIT campus and new public transport interchange in Woden Town Centre, to open in 2025, and is laying the tracks for light rail from Civic.
“Woden is undergoing significant change,” Ian Cameron, the Hellenic Club’s CEO, said.
Pedal Power: Relocation is dangerous
The bike path in question was built on the northern side of Matilda Street in 2017, at a cost of $1 million from the government, Simon Copland, Pedal Power’s executive director, said; the verge was widened at the expanse of road width and landscaping the full length of Matilda Street.
Pedal Power generally supports the redevelopment project, but objects to the relocation of the bike path.
Matilda Street, Mr Copland said, is the primary east-west active travel route from the east to the northern part of the Woden Town Centre; connects Bowes Street to the office precinct and the Woden Town Centre square; and links Hughes and Garran to Yamba Drive and the hospital.
Mr Copland said that if the bikeway is moved, it would no longer line up with a spur path and bridge across Yarralumla Creek to the C4 north-south principal community route, or to a proposed protected crossing of Callam Street, to the northern side of Matilda Street, being built as part of the new Woden Interchange.
“Bike riders will tend to ignore a route on the south side of Matilda Street, as it means diverting away from the most direct route,” Mr Copland said. “Rather, they will tend to cycle straight on, putting them in danger, and making the re-located bikeway redundant.”
Hellenic Club: ‘Safe and enjoyable’
But Mr Cameron believes the new location will be safer. At the moment, the bike path and the Hellenic Club’s loading dock are both on the northern side of the street – “a potential point of conflict between trucks and cyclists,” Mr Cameron said.
The relocation, he explained, will remove interactions between cyclists and vehicles that would occur should the cycle lane remain on the north side. The loading dock will remain in its current location.
The relocation would also place the cycle path on the sunny side of Matilda Street as part of a new public park, to the south of the club, linking Callam Street to Bowes Street, connecting the light rail corridor to the Woden CBD, Mr Cameron said.
“That will improve the experience of using the cycle path when compared with its current shaded location.”
Government restrictions mean that the club can only provide vehicle access to the new Hellenic Precinct from Matilda Street (a three-lane ramp to basement car parks) or Bowes Street (a new basement loading dock and a porte cochère), Mr Cameron noted.
“By distributing these access points on different streets, vehicle movements are less concentrated and reduce the number of turning interactions, resulting in a safer street network,” Mr Cameron said.
The existing car parks (outside the club) will become “places for people to walk, to sit, to visit, and to enjoy”, Mr Cameron said.
Callam Street is mooted to be a light rail and pedestrian corridor, and Launceston Street is a major vehicle arterial route.
Connections to the east and west into the broader cycle network would be accommodated as part of the road network updates, Mr Cameron said.
“Whilst is not integral to the scheme that the current cycle lane is relocated to the south, it will ensure that all visitors and employees, whether arriving by foot, bicycle, light rail or car are able to visit in a safe and enjoyable manner.”
Pedal Power: When will bike path be redeveloped?
Mr Copland believes that the bike path will not be immediately rebuilt. According to him, the club has claimed that the developer of block seven (the public park) opposite the club would pay for it.
“The Hellenic Club’s proposal to move the bikeway is audacious and self-serving,” Mr Copland said. “To suit their own convenience and take advantage of the widened verge constructed for the bikeway, the Hellenic Club wishes to inconvenience riders, and pass on the cost to another, yet unidentified, developer at some unspecified time.
“The problem is of the Hellenic Club’s own making, and it should not be rewarded by moving the bikeway at somebody else’s cost. Under this proposal, it is not even clear if and when the bikeway would be redeveloped, nor who would pay for it.
“There is high risk that even if the developer of block seven agreed to take on this task, the timing would not occur simultaneously, thus leaving the community with no bikeway, for at least a while.”
Hellenic Club: Encouraging green travel
Mr Cameron said that the club acknowledged “the importance of cycling as a part of the transportation network of Canberra and its recreational benefits, and wish[ed] to reinforce that in the planning of this precinct”.
The new Hellenic Precinct proposes 138 public bike parking spaces, both in dedicated secure areas and within the precinct. There will be an additional 252 bike parking spaces for employees in the precinct.
“There is a genuine desire to encourage green travel by means of walking, cycling, and light rail,” Mr Cameron said.
