Once approved, the new Pal Buddhist School campus in Austral will serve up to 192 students across two stages of development. Stage 1A accommodates 96 students, with Stage 1B expanding to the full capacity.
The proposed development includes general learning areas in modular buildings, a refurbished reception and administration building, a new hall and canteen, a toilet block, and 14 on-site car parking spaces.
ptc. was engaged by Pal Buddhist School, care of EPM Projects, to prepare a Transport Impact Assessment (TIA) in support of the DA.
The project presented specific challenges: the site layout and characteristics and Council initial requirements. Being a narrow and long block of land with significant trees requiring retention, there is limited space for on-site parking areas. Council requirements included significant infrastructure upgrades, new accesses and extensive public road works that were not feasible within the school’s budget or deemed necessary given the traffic modelling completed.
As an on-street pick-up and drop-off arrangement was not accepted by Council, ptc.‘s solution centred on developing alternatives methodologies to reduce traffic around the school. The most viable option was a minibus pick-up and drop-off scheme operating between the school and Leppington train station, 2.1 km away. The service would run at five-minute intervals during the morning drop-off window (7:50 am–8:15 am) and afternoon pick-up window (3:30 pm–4:00 pm), outside private vehicle arrival and departure times.
The analysis demonstrated that the minibus operation could reduce up to 74% of student-related private vehicle trips in Stage 1A and 55% in Stage 1B. But most importantly is the flexibility of the scheme. It is easily scalable, additional services can be added as the school population grows, without dependence on external infrastructure upgrades.
Clients: Pal Buddhist School and EPM Projects
Location: Austral, NSW
Service:
- Transport Impact Assessment