Hospitality and Local Economies

Historically the concept of hospitality lies on obtaining visitors in a spirit of goodwill specifically from tourists of other lands. Hospitality primarily implies warmth, dignity and protection and further establishes understanding and appreciation among diverse cultures. Hospitality tends to generate revenue for local economies directly with tourists expenses in hotels, entertainment venues, restaurants (Signorelli, 2016). It further helps economies indirectly as tourists from various parts of the world consume retail products and services along with locally made souvenirs and crafts. Furthermore, these hospitality venues can stimulate the establishment such as roads and public transportation. In 2017, reports by Johnston et al. (2015) revealed that the hospitality sector has accounted for over 315 million jobs worldwide which further translate to around 9.9% of total employment and 20% of all global net jobs in the past decade. The hospitality sector of Australia offer wide range of function venues to the nation’s economy and receives substantial prominence from all over the world for its broad array of tourist venues and services they offer (Signorelli, 2016). The following paper aims to evaluate the way architectural design, project management have played vital role in Sydney Harbour Bridge. In addition to this, it will also focus on the integration of urban development in this area.

The building of Sydney Harbour Bridge is recognized as one of the significant events in Australia’s history (Chan et al., 2016). It represents a pivotal approach in the development of contemporary Sydney and one of the Australia’s major important capitals. The Sydney Harbour Bridge as per the research of Johnston et al. (2015) has further received substantial recognition as one of the world’s greatest arch bridges. Though not the largest architectural span in the world, Sydney’s Harbour Bridge as well as its load capacity possess greater significance in comparison to other major arch bridges. Thus no other bridges in Australia are compared to the Sydney Harbour Bridge because of its advanced technical value and significance (Goddard, 2017). However Johnston et al. (2015) have claimed that engineers Australia has drawn interest to its rate of complexity in combining length of span with width and load carrying capacity. Furthermore, the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge has merged accessible technology with natural benefits provided by the site (Signorelli, 2016). At this juncture, (Mottee and Howitt (2018) have considered that for Sydney as a whole, the Bridge has essentially facilitated the city to open up the northern side of the harbour and further permitted the city to make significant expansions towards the north. However in order to attain these developments parts of the Rocks had to be demolished which were originally developed by Francis Greenway (Chan et al., 2016).  Furthermore, the Sydney Harbour Bridge have enhanced protection and safety level because prior to its opening, there had been almost 75 ferries per hour between the north and south sides of the harbour (Mottee & Howitt, 2018).

Sydney Harbour Bridge in Urban Development

Reports by Head (2016) have revealed that the Sydney Harbour Bridge recently has removed the toll booths and upgraded the southern end region of the bridge. This development further has opened avenues to efficiently simplify traffic movements to and from the Western Distributor as well as northern Sydney CBD (Black, 2014). Mayer-Pinto et al. (2015) have stated that this expansion has further facilitated continuation of the bus lane from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the York Street and further provided broad spatial areas for bus readiness bays for buses which approach towards York Street during the peak hours in the evening. Leung et al., (2017) have revealed that recently the NSW Government has aimed to upgrade tolling technology on the bridge and tunnel. This development of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Tunnel tolling infrastructure is expected to ensure the constant reliability and prospective capacity of the tolling system (Mottee & Howitt, 2018).

Walker and Fransos, (2016) have noted that the NSW Government has upgraded the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel play critical parts of Sydney’s road network. Mayer-Pinto et al. (2015) have further noted that around 160,000 vehicles use this route every week and carry around one-third proportion of all traffic which enters and leaves the city during peak timings. The upgrade saw the installation of tolling gantries in these locations over

• Toll point 1 situated at the southbound lanes of the Warringah Freeway, in the north of Mount Street,
• Toll Point 2- Eastern Sydney Harbour Bridge on ramp region from Mount Street(Leung et al., 2017),
• Toll Point 3- Western Sydney Harbour Bridge situated on the rise of Mount Street and,
• Toll Point 4 that is located at the Sydney Harbour Bridge on-ramp from the High Street.

The proposal of the project has been developed since the initial proposal in 2012 because of the changes in Roads and Maritime tolling standards, developments in technology and modifications to the tolling infrastructure used across Sydney (Black, 2014). (Walker and Fransos (2016) have stated that modifications have included the locations of the gantries, dimension and size of the gantry as well as the type of technical expertise which will be employed. However, roads and maritime separately has evaluated the removal of the northern and southern toll booths and realigning the lanes through these regions (Mayer-Pinto et al., 2015). Furthermore, this work has been currently well executed in which the tolling equipment has been installed and is ready for operation. Furthermore, action to remove the southern toll booths and realign the lanes has been completed in recently along with the Northern Toll Plaza Precinct upgrade project is currently being executed (Head, 2016).

The Sydney Harbour Bridge recently has been exposed back to the original concrete deck in order to implement advanced waterproofing layer along with asphalt surfacing for the first time in history. Fraser, (2016) has revealed that the asphalt surfacing had only been restored in small sections and by patching of areas of problems. However the objectives of the $3.8 million waterproofing and resurfacing supported by Transport NSW Roads and Maritime Services rely primarily on the reduction of the need for immediate maintenance, development in road quality by efficiently offering smoother and more functional durable road surface (Head, 2016). Furthermore, this project eventually has been in the planning as well as construction stages by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) and engaged processes such as

• Preparation and planning of wide ranging activities that includes inclusive closure of the bridge to normal traffic over two weekends along with proficient time management and media information (Walker & Fransos, 2016).
• Cleaning as well as drying the concrete and implementation of water resistance membrane.
• Supply, position and compaction of asphalt surface.

Value of Project Management in Sydney Harbour Bridge

(Diffin, 2015) has revealed that the Boral Asphalt has been initially constructed in order to design the asphalt in order to accomplish rigid technical demands and further supply and position the asphalt. However according to Walker and Fransos (2016), few challenges are needed to be attained such as designing a solid graded asphalt product which provided exceptional fatigue attributes, extensive resistance to enduring deformation along with a dense surface texture. It has been noted by Mayer-Pinto et al (2015) that RMS is accountable for the management as well as maintenance of the Sydney road network that is typically being executed by contractors registered on the RMS Panel Contract. The Sydney Harbour Bridge which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records (2011) as the widest long span bridge of the world conveys over 160,000 vehicles in a day in comparison to 11,000 vehicles carried during the 1930’s. Thus the proposed asphalt must accomplish a highly rigid set of performance parameters in order to contest with the next phase of the durability of the bridge (Walker & Fransos, 2016). (Mottee and Howitt (2018) are of the perspective that apart from the mix design required to offer an undemanding compactable mix with improved surface texture, a vital attribute of the mix constituted a high fatigue resistance value in order to endure flexural movement of the Harbour Bridge’s deck and further reduce reflective cracking under increased rate of traffic load regimes (Johnston et al., 2015).

Meanwhile, de Percy (2018) has noted that the Boral Asphalt has been primarily built in order to supply and position of the asphalt. Furthermore, the elimination of current asphalt, evaluation of profiled surface and appliance of the membrane has been under the regulation of other contracted parties. Boral Asphalt efficiently produced the asphalt at its Enfield Plant whereby a comprehensive range of combined design performance has been conducted (Diffin, 2015). Recently Head (2016) reports have revealed that the asphalt on the Sydney Harbour Bridge deck is performing proficiently. Furthermore, asphalt on the approach decks at either end of the bridge has been initially affected by moisture trapped under the waterproofing membrane. Walker and Fransos (2016) at this stage revealed that RMS handled this challenge and consequentially assessment has been carried out of which illuminated that the asphalt accomplished or exceeded performance requirements (Black, 2014).

The Sydney Harbour Bridge as per the view of author being the only public space and the most contested one. However, regardless of these facts, the Harbour Bridge has successfully retained high level of resilience, beauty and significance. Furthermore the power of social activism, conscious design along with continued investment in public domain has been highly instrumental in sustaining it in expected manner (Johnston et al., 2015). However, in recent times, the elevated rate of change and demands to transform as a global capital has growingly been consequential in the implementation of international expansion models and a progress towards market-driven infrastructure provision (Goddard, 2017). Such a development has been recognized as a significant shift to the focus from public to private interests from government as promoter to government as client with combined outcomes. However, one of the significant roles being as part of the Sydney Harbour Design Panel lied on lifting the design standards of strategic venues surrounding the harbour (Signorelli, 2016). Several project managers according to Johnston et al. (2015) have set up as well as implemented consistent design principles which responded to the quality of the harbour landscape and terrain by significantly ensuring advanced development to scale down to the harbour for proper sharing of information and setting up the harbour for citizens and accessible to all (Signorelli, 2016).

Meanwhile Fraser (2016) is of the opinion that a significant development of Sydney Harbour has been attained with proper configuration of successive administration. It has been noted that the commitment of such alignments to public policy and projects of objectives and design have increased the level of feasibility. Furthermore, recent advancements to the harbour range from the nature of the reserves as well as remediated landscapes of Sydney Olympic Park has been executed to regenerate Defence lands of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and the nuanced re-interpretations of Australia’s industrial heritage at Ballast and Pyrmont Points and Cockatoo Island (Walker & Fransos, 2016).

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be stated that the Sydney Harbour Bridge with exceptional national heritage value is proposing advanced project developments to sustain its significance in the world tourism sector. Furthermore the Sydney Bridge is efficiently preserving its technical significance that offers high level of accessibility to all areas of central Sydney as well as its surrounding regions. Such expansion has led Australia to witness a growth in its population surrounding these areas. The paper evaluated the way the social and economic gains of the Sydney Bridge has made its exceptional design highly recognisable and is recognized as a symbol of national pride and heritage for national and international visitors.

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