Bike access to Childers Street in South Kensington will be frozen as work on Melbourne Metro’s tunnel moves to the first stage of construction.
A turn-around is being constructed outside South Kensington station to enable construction vehicles to access the precinct along Childers Street from Kensington Road.
From late-August, a bike detour will be available via Kensington Road and Altona Street. Over the coming weeks, the Altona Street truncation will be modified to allow riders to pass through the closed section via a new shared pathway on the southern side of Altona Street.
Riders can continue using Childers Street until the detour modification has been completed. Local signage will advise when the cyclist detour route is open.
Confusingly, motor traffic, but not bikes, will be permitted to use a section of Childers Street during the stage one closure in order to access car storage at the station.
The current stage one closure of 160 metres of the street is necessary to enable excavation of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) retrieval shaft and the construction of supporting infrastructure.
Towards the end of 2018 the remaining length of Childers Street (from Kensington Road to Ormond Street) will be closed to enable stage two of construction, involving the decline structure and new track required to tie the Metro Tunnel into the existing Sunbury rail line.
Stage one will be delivered by the Cross Yarra Partnership (CYP) and the stage two by the Rail Infrastructure Alliance (RIA).
Childers Street is expected to remain closed to through traffic until late 2022, except for some residents and over-height vehicles requiring access top the Lloyd St business estate.
