Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Wouldn't there be emgerency exits which are now blocked by the fencing?

Here it is another couple of weeks and there is still no work happening on this path.

The emails from the Arena indicate that there is/will be work going on. There has not been any work undertaken on this path area in the past 6 weeks that I have resumed my travels along this route. There was no work being undertaken in the earlier part of the year.

This footpath has now been closed since Christmas 2016, with little or no work being undertaken.

Emails to Perth Arena indicate a very arrogant response that this is private property and that they have the right to close this major access path on a whim.

So lets go way back to when there was no Arena. The carpark that was there before the Arena was the connection between the footbridge to Northbridge and the existing footpath to West Perth. I do remember riding across that carpark in 2006 before the arena was built.

When the Arena was built (with Federal/State and Perth funds) it was a condition of the building to maintain this access way from the city/Northbridge. Remember that at that time there was the pedestrian/cycle bridge to Northbridge

Now back to the Private Property argument put forward by the Arena management. Perth Arena is a State government enterprise under the VenuesWest logo. I can understand closures for event reasons, but there would be a major outcry if the roads footpaths through HBF (Challenge) stadium were closed for this period of time. Perth Arena is a similar state government funded body. It is not a private company.

The path itself...... from what I can see - most of that path is owned by State Government Public Transport and not owned by the State Government VenuesWest. I suspect that this route is also covered by a major drainage/sewerage easement with access at all times to Water Corporation .

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that Perth Arena is seeking to close of this arterial footpath connecting Perth City to West Perth.

This flies in the path of State Government policy to encourage bikeriding and pedestrian access. The closure of this path is acting as an unnecessary restriction to a safe pedestrian and bike access between Northbridge and West Perth/Harbourtown.

The only reason that can be deduced for the closure is that somewhere in Perth Arena someone has a dislike for either bike riders or pedestrians using their private path.

Could I urge you to again contact Perth Arena, Bikewest, Perth Council and your local state government members to get this footpath reopened.

And from the master plan for the Perth City Link

A Principal Shared Path (PSP) currently dissects the study area and there is one in close proximity. PSP Route 15 travels in an east west direction along the PerthFremantle railway line. It traverses the southern side of the railway line west of the existing PSP bridge, adjacent to the entertainment Centre complex, and Roe Street on the eastern side of the PSP bridge. It has been established through discussions with the Department of Planning and Infrastructure that PSP Route 15 is the busiest in the metropolitan area, as the section running on the southern side of the railway carries 1,200 cyclists per day and the section running on the northern end of the railway line carries 700 cyclists per day.

I've used this fact in previous correspondence on this location.

By my understanding the path behind the Arena is a thoroughfare as defined by the City of Perth Thoroughfares and Public Places Local Law 2017 and Local Government Act 1995 and therefore any closure should require the permission of the City of Perth, notification to affected parties and on-going permitting.

It might be worth contacting CoP and seeing if they consider this a thoroughfare and have authorised this closure.

Edit: I have followed my own advice and contacted CoP. I'll get back to you with the outcome.

Correspondence (re)commenced and brush off received within 24hrs. Last time I got silence.

Scott_C wrote:I have followed my own advice and contacted CoP. I'll get back to you with the outcome.

Do let us know.

Sent to City of Perth

"Footpath behind Perth Arena (owned by State Government and funded by Federal/State/Local Government) , linking Northbridge to West Perth has been closed by the management of Perth Arena for 8 months with no work being undertaken. The constant excuse by management is that work is ongoing. No work has been undertaken on this site for a long time.

This is a major link for pedestrian and cycle traffic in the Perth CBD and was installed to maintain the pedestrian access that was current with the old carpark and pedestrian bridge to Northbridge before the development of Perth arena and the rail underpass.

Could you please intercede with Perth Arena to reopen this footpath?"

It's also a serious issue when there are major events on early in the evening...try taking the 'detour' when the basketball or a major concert is on.

Looking at a Strava segment around the Arena, there have been 560 cyclists go down the western side this month alone. Couple of things to bear in mind...

-This is just in one direction, so you could probably double that number on the assumption that people make their return journey through here.
-Poor weather in recent weeks means there could potentially be hundreds more trips each week when there is good weather.
-This is just Strava, so once again there could potentially be hundreds more cyclists making trips down this route in the past month.

Today alone (which would have the be one of the nicest days so far this August weather wise), there was 116 cyclists passing through (once again, this is just in one direction).

Strava will only allow you to view stats for the current day, week, month and year. I'm trying to see if I can obtain stats for all of 2017 and break it up month by month.

Be interesting to provide these stats to CoP, Main Roads and Arena management.

CoP reply

The Transport Unit understands your frustration regarding the issue of Perth Arena having the PSP to the rear closed at present.

 

As you may not be aware this path is the responsibility of Arena management and is not designated as a ‘shared path’, but instead, the official cycling route runs along Wellington Street.

 

The City of Perth have received a number of complaints from members of the public and the Bicycling Western Australia organisation regarding the closure of the path at the rear of the Arena alongside the railway line. 

 

Given that the City of Perth is regularly receiving correspondence from members of the public about the re-opening of this connection, we have written to the Arena about their plans for this path and/or when it will be reopened for public use. 

 

This letter was distributed on 25th of July 2017 and we have yet to receive a response from Venues West Management at the Perth Arena. Should we receive information regarding this matter, the community will be appropriately informed.

My reply to my CoP champion

I disagree with your comments on the path.  This path has been in use for the past 10 years since the Commonwealth/State/Perth funded Arena was opened.  The path was built as replacement for the existing footpath across the Perth Council owned land between the Northbridge footbridge and West Perth.

 

From what i can see, The land that the footpath is built on is government land vested with Venueswest  (under Minister for Sport and Recreation) and Department of Transport.  It is hardly private land.  It is also part of a drainage reserve and also a fire escape route from the Arena.

 

Could you please follow directly with Perth Arena on your letter?


Appreciate your efforts,  and look forward to your reply

CoP reply mark II. Very prompt and courteous reply. So looks like we keep going .......

Thank you for your email.  The City of Perth has no ability to require opening of the path.  Regardless of vesting or ownership of the land, the Arena Management is responsible for the path and have indicated that it requires closure due to works being undertaken at height above the path.  These works are not within the City of Perth remit and as such, the City have no control over the works or the Arena’s justification for path closure. 

 

Safety is a primary concern for the City of Perth and we must defer to Arena Management who are undertaking the works and control the site.

 

I agree that the path is an important connection for cyclists and the City of Perth is keen to provide a range of cycling route options.  As such, we will continue to liaise with Perth Arena Management regarding the path opening

It might be worthwhile pointing out to CoP that the PSP to the west of the arena is meant to be (according to the Perth CityLink Masterplan) combined with on-road cycle lanes in a low speed environment on Wellington St and if the northern path is out of their control the redevelopment of Wellington St is within their control and in the absence of the northern path their failure to deliver the parallel Wellington St infrastructure leaves a significant gap in the promised cycling infrastructure.

Tweeted PerthArena and Venueswest on Sunday after riding through. Perth Arena didn't reply which seems to be the norm (last time they took some prodding). Venueswest replied with:

"The path was closed due to remedial works being done in the area, these are continuing and we hope to open the path in the coming months"

So we may get to a full year of closure with very little work at all being observed.

Found some old emails dating back to March 2014 when I contacted the Arena "Firstly I cannot discuss as to why we have had to close the PSP with yourself unfortunately but what I can say is it was because of a public safety issue." and " .. the path is closed because of a safety issue and will remain closed for a minimum of 8 weeks until urgent repair works can be carried out.". For it to be ongoing 3 years later is disappointing and concerning.

Maybe drop an email to the state government member for Perth, John Carey. He is very proactive and very very pro-cycling (his mayoral vehicle while he was at city of vincent was an e-bike).

After City of Perth fobbed me off with the same excuses they have given others I have come up with a new angle I am going to try. I have reason to believe that the provision of cycling facilities, cycling parking and an event traffic management plan was a condition of the development approval for the Arena so I'll try and get the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency to release the DA conditions and/or confirm if the Arena is complying with the conditions after they have closed access to cycling facilities including the public cycling parking at the Eastern end of the path.

Perth Arena glass panels at risk of shattering

VenuesWest chief executive David Etherton said it became aware of the issue in late 2016 after one glass panel broke.

And it has taken this long to finally report on it?

Plus, this forum topic dates back to 2014, so was there another reason why the path has been periodically closed?

I struggle to believe that the southern side of the Arena is the officially designated PSP.

Surely if it were, there would:
- Have clear markings like the rest of the PSP - especially to separate traffic in each direction
- Not routed through pre-event staging areas - it's impossible to use during events
- Not have handrails overhanging the path - SW corner
- Not have narrow, blind, slippery pedestrian interaction points
- Avoid additional vehicular interaction points

If this is a designated path, there is no way it would comply with whatever codes/standards the rest of the PSP is designed & constructed to.

It's an accident waiting to happen.

ninetubes wrote:I struggle to believe that the southern side of the Arena is the officially designated PSP.

Surely if it were, there would:
- Have clear markings like the rest of the PSP - especially to separate traffic in each direction
- Not routed through pre-event staging areas - it's impossible to use during events
- Not have handrails overhanging the path - SW corner
- Not have narrow, blind, slippery pedestrian interaction points
- Avoid additional vehicular interaction points

If this is a designated path, there is no way it would comply with whatever codes/standards the rest of the PSP is designed & constructed to.

It's an accident waiting to happen.

Not only is the southern side of the Arena the officially designated path, the Department of Transport Cycling Route Map indicates that it is a "High Quality Shared Path" based on the line weight and colour used.

Having had a look over the Route Map there a bunch of other BS like markings indicating that Leach highway has "Cycle Lanes or Wide Shoulders" on sections where there are zero shoulders and you are forced into the 3.5m wide vehicle lane with semi-trailers at 70kph (in particular the bridge over the Armadale line railway).

Scott_C wrote:Having had a look over the Route Map there a bunch of other BS like markings

Tried Russell road east of Stock road recently ? Another "primary route". My #$%a

I was on the bus passing this last Friday arvo and noticed a cherry picker with some panels in it.

Whether or not its legit repair works or they just put a cherry picker with dummy panels to keep us off their backs who knows.

The tender for the contract to replace the glass doesn't close until the 5th of October so the replacement works aren't underway yet (you can find the tender and download all the related documents from www.tenders.wa.gov.au just search for the word Arena in current tenders). The cherry picker might be related to pre-tender inspections or just part of regular maintenance/cleaning.

I would expect the tender will take at least 2 weeks to award once it closes and then the Contractor still has to measure the dimensions of all the existing faulty panels before they can order replacement panels (by which time it will be Christmas and the factory is likely to close from Christmas to Australia day).

I would estimate that the path won't re-open until late February at the earliest (if they prioritise fixing the Northern façade first so they can open the path) with March/April not out of the question.

rolandp wrote:Plus, this forum topic dates back to 2014, so was there another reason why the path has been periodically closed?

Not sure. I suspect that it went something like this: they found water on the inside of the arena. Realised it wasn't spillage/plumbing and then went looking for a leak in the roof. Couldn't find a problem with the roof/walls. Kept chasing the trail of dampness (now there's a book title!) after every rain event until they finally discovered the broken glass. Then they had to start working out why the panel broke.

All while saying "nothing to see here, move along"

Got a note back from them saying that is was likely to be closed for rest of year or longer.

Went for a look at lunchtime and the front footpath was also closed. Looks like they are doing significant works there also.

Looks like the place has a lot of problems. Might be best to avoid it for a fair while given the way it seems to be falling apart now though. Never know what might fall on you, and the path is closed for safety reasons.

I wonder if the panels have been checked to see if they are not the same as the London/Dubai ones.

Bit of a worry ...... from venueswest. Sound like they do have major problems with the arena. Better stay away until they get it fixed.

Remedial works are still in progress in the vicinity of the bike path, so it needs to remain closed. We appreciate that this is causing inconvenience to cyclists and pedestrians and are working to get the path open again as soon as we can.

Thanks,

Erin Gallagher
Communications Manager
Phone: 08 9441 8347 | 0408 575 755