The northern Illawarra could have had the Sea Cliff Bridge and the Sea Cliff tunnel. Or even two Sea Cliff bridges.
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In January 2004, after the Coast Road had been closed for six months due to constant rockfalls, the then Roads Minister Carl Scully unveiled four options to fix the problem.
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Of the four Option D was the most boring; that would retain the existing road but include a plethora of safety devices like nets and ditches to catch falling rocks as well as driving bolts into the cliff face to hold it in place.
The other three options all included bridges, with C being a straight bridge between the southern and northern headlands.
It was options A and B where things got interesting - and where the government was probably looking (why else would they have put the most boring option at the bottom of the list?).
Option B saw a bridge starting where the existing Sea Cliff Bridge does, but instead of curving around the northern headland the road went straight through it via a tunnel, with either a rock shelter or a second smaller bridge at the northern end.
One wonders whether all the Instagrammers who now take selfies overlooking the bridge would have found a tunnel just as appealing.
As one might expect, it was the first option that ended up being the one we got - even though it actually contained two options.
The first was a bridge that curled in towards the coast and rejoined the road around the northern headland, where a second bridge would link it to Coalcliff.
That plan would require part of the existing road to be strengthened and the overlooking cliffs to be stabilised.
If that wasn't possible, then one continuous bridge would be built over the water between Clifton and Coaldale.
And that's the option Mr Scully went with, announcing to the region on March 23, 2004 that a 665-metre bridge would be built to link the northern suburbs. With a $47 million price tag it cost about $71,000 a metre.
It was due to be completed in early 2006 but, with the common government practice of padding out construction times, it opened ahead of schedule in December 2005.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
