Creating Wentworth Point's Town Centre: Bennelong Bridge
This article is part 2 of a 4 part series. Previously we introduced the Urban Design of Wentworth Point Marinas.
Bennelong Bridge: A Game Changer
The Bennelong Bridge underpins the financial and social feasibility of the whole town centre. Density is only defensible when facilitated by connectivity. The bridge not only connects Wentworth Point to the railway station at Rhodes, it also interconnects two communities such that people from both peninsulas have somewhere else to visit locally, adding social complexity to each. The prohibition of cars on the bridge prioritises more social forms of movement such as buses, cycling and walking.
It also interconnects two communities
A magic moment in the evolution of the town centre occurred when the bridge was committed to a construction contract. Only at this moment was it feasible to commit substantial retail amenities to Wentworth Point, since it was only then that the patronage of residents from Rhodes could be counted-on to augment the demand necessary to sustain it. An interdependent dynamic such as this evidences the need for dynamic urban design and approval processes wherein social advantage can be wrought from market forces, as they are occurring.
Discouraging the use of cars also encourages walking and cycling with obvious consequences for health and wellbeing. The Bennelong Bridge arrives at Wentworth Point 2 levels above the water, at the same level as the town centre. Visitors can walk seamlessly off the bridge and into the town centre or future park.
Rick Graf, Development Director at Billbergia, orchestrated the process of procuring the bridge through six years of dialogue and negotiation with government agencies. Rick thinks that ‘value capture’ processes like this hold great promise for the future. “Under a Voluntary Planning Agreement we were able to increase the density of the town centre in order to finance the bridge so that it could be gifted to government at zero cost to the community. The great advantage of this process is that the place that finances the social infrastructure also derives direct advantage, ahead of its need. Infrastructure is ‘tuned to the moment and to the place’ using methods more nimble than government can deliver through long-term master planning aloof from the trajectory of short-term market behaviours.”
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