Cadel Evans, the Tour de France’s only Australian winner, once described the 55-step staircase at the northern end of Sydney Harbour Bridge’s cycle path as something that “doesn’t seem very well thought out”.
Norman Monshall is less diplomatic.
“It’s absurd, it’s the laughing stock of the country’s cycling infrastructure,” the 79-year-old from Allambie Heights says.
“I’ve cycled in every large city in Australia, and the only comparison is the Tasman Bridge in Hobart, which has a very narrow bike lane but at least has easy access.”
The retired superannuation manager has been riding across the bridge for 50 years. For now, he can only cycle northwards over the bridge then push his new e-bike down the steps at Milsons Point. To cross the harbour going south, he takes the ferry from Manly to the city, avoiding the danger of carrying the 27kg bike up the steep steps.
But construction has finally begun on the state government’s $38.9m cycleway ramp, a 3-metre wide, 200-metre long path expected to be completed by early 2026. Hailed as the “missing link” for Sydney cycling commuters, it will connect northern bike routes with the city and south via the city’s only cross-harbour cycleway.
It’s been a long time coming. Since at least the 1980s, Sydneysiders have agitated for a way to cycle from the bridge’s north end without having to dismount and carry or push their bikes up and down the steps.
Roadblocks to ramp
When the bridge was planned in the 1920s, its chief engineer, John Bradfield, wanted the design to “adequately meet future requirements” by including an 18ft (5.5-metre) wide roadway for light car and bicycle traffic. But cars eventually nudged cyclists off the road and on to the western pathway with its step access.
Transport for NSW (TfNSW) figures show 2,000 trips a day are now made on the cycleway – all by a particular type of cyclist, according to the TfNSW executive director of cities and active transport, Anna Bradley.
“You cannot get up those steps unless you’re a fit, able-bodied cyclist,” Bradley says.
The ramp is expected to double the cycleway’s capacity, giving another travel option to families with children, less able cyclists, and e-bike and cargo bike riders.
The journey hasn’t been without its roadblocks. A 1999 state government feasibility study outlined four ramp options according to height, gradient, sight distance, heritage considerations and safety. The plans were repeatedly shelved, re-emerging in 2012, then in 2016 – when the ramp project was announced – and finally in 2020, when consultation led to two options being put forward the following year: a gently curving ramp and double-looped ramp.
The vast majority of respondents supported the plan, with the linear option favoured by 68% of people canvassed – but 58% of respondents from the immediate area opposed the ramp.
Julia Connor of the Milsons Point Community Group has strenuously campaigned against the ramp on the basis of its impact on historic Bradfield Park and pedestrian safety.
The group claims far fewer cyclists use the cycleway than the state government data suggests and that the number declined between 2014 and 2020. TfNSW data shows the number of daily bike trips over the bridge has increased by 15.2% in the past 12 months.
Connor suggests a lift at each end of the cycleway, mirroring those on the pedestrian walkway or a cycleway that overshoots Milsons Point, giving cyclists smoother access to North Sydney and beyond.
“I’m not anti-cyclist. I’m anti this particular plan in this particular area,” she says.
“They’re destroying the park. We might have fantastic harbour views, but we have very, very little green space, so we value that park.”
The group commissioned an alternative ramp design that would not run above the park, but it was rejected, Connor says, leaving her “totally disillusioned” with consultation processes.
North Sydney council repeatedly raised heritage and safety concerns about the ramp, delaying its construction until it granted the state government access to Bradfield Park in 2023 on condition it $2.5m towards green space improvements. The offer was accepted as TfNSW threatened compulsory acquisition of the land.
“Transport for NSW is a real juggernaut; it just pushes on through,” Connor says.
A harbour bridge for all
The North Sydney mayor, Zoe Baker, says the winning design provides a net increase in the number of trees in the park. She says the bike ramp is part of a bigger picture to help take cars off the road in one of the most dense local government areas in the country, with 5,900 new dwellings forecast by 2029.
Bradley says designers considered lifts, travelators and moving the bike path to the eastern side or on to the bridge deck itself, ousting a car lane. A cantilevered path was not structurally possible; the option had to include support pylons.
“Short of teleporting, we’ve looked at every option to get ourselves up,” she says.
Bike paths have always been “heavily contested” wherever she has worked, Bradley says.
Businesses fear the disruption posed by construction, but research shows bikes deliver a spending boost to local businesses, Bradley says, citing the tourism drawcard of cycleways in San Francisco and Japan.
The Bicycle NSW chief executive, Peter McLean, has watched ramp momentum build and stall over the years. He says Milsons Point is home to a small but loud group of “super-nimbys”.
“They’re nimbys with more time, more money and more resources,” he says. “We’re really pleased that governments have heeded the advice and obeyed common sense to make sure it goes ahead.”
Down at street level, a group plays petanque in the sunshine, the eastern side of their terrain forming the border of the ramp work site.
“We’re opposed to it!” a player calls out.
On the bridge cycleway, a guard stationed at each end turns back pedestrians who can only use the footpath on the bridge’s eastern side.
A woman driving a delivery bike stops at the bottom of the steps and asks where the entrance to the cycleway is.
“This is it,” two elderly cyclists on their way down reply. The guard tells her that she can take the ferry or the train. Eventually, three cyclists help the woman up the steps with her heavy e-bike.
Monshall hopes the ramp will impel improvements to access on the city side, which now includes a steep ramp and two blind corners on a shared pedestrian and cycling path. In 2016, the state government announced a $15m southern ramp upgrade, but it has not materialised.
In the meantime, he says, he is “delighted” the ramp is on its way – even if it won’t be in time for his 80th birthday in May, as he had hoped.
“The harbour bridge is for all Sydneysiders, not just the people who are lucky enough to live harbourside.”
