‘Much more than a ramp’: Newest addition to Sydney Harbour Bridge opens to cyclists

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After a long wait, a $39 million cycle ramp at the northern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge opens on Tuesday, ending riders’ frustration at having to lug bikes up and down 55 stairs to cross the landmark.

But for those who made it a reality, it is much more than a cycle ramp.

Scott Badham of Aspect Studios – lead designer on the project – said the ramp had to be special because it tied into the famed bridge and a heritage park at Milsons Point.

Aspect Studios’ Scott Badham (left) and Jason Packenham test the ramp ahead of its opening.

“It’s not just a cycle ramp. It’s a beautifully crafted piece of infrastructure,” Badham, an avid cyclist, said.

The 170-metre-long ramp curves around the entrance to Milsons Point Station, its skeletal form making it a challenge to build.

“There’s no straight lines on the geometry of the ramp. The whole thing is curved,” Badham said.

British tourists Oscar Tully and Libby McNavoe navigate the 55 steps on their way to Manly from central Sydney on Monday.

“But it also means you end up with this beautiful, snaky, kind of sinuous form through the park that threads from existing infrastructure down into the park.”

The opening of the three-metre-wide ramp will create a continuous north-south route across the Harbour Bridge, linking into cycleways in the central city via Kent Street, out to Sydney’s east via the Oxford Street bike path and to the west via the Anzac Bridge.

At the northern end, the elevated ramp connects to a new cycle route along Alfred Street South to Middlemiss Street at North Sydney, including new crossings on Alfred Street South and Lavender Street.

Some 1500 bronze balustrades for the ramp, produced mainly in western Sydney, have been created from the same alloy type as the Sydney Opera House bronze, and the new structure is painted in the heritage-listed Harbour Bridge grey.

The ramp features 130,000 granite pavers that were laid to form an intertwining eels artwork.

About 130,000 granite pavers were used to create an artwork by Aboriginal artists Jason Wing and Maddie Gibbs that depicts interconnected eels. The eels, which honour the connection to the area of the Gadigal and Cammeraygal people, run the length of the ramp.

The ramp’s steepest gradient is 5 per cent, which makes it a gentle climb for cyclists. Lighting underneath can be turned to any colour but will mostly be set to a warm glow.

The opening follows years of opposition from some Milsons Point residents who had argued that the “linear” structure for the ramp would compromise the bridge’s heritage and encroach on Bradfield Park. Once approved, however, the ramp’s construction took about 13 months.

Transport Minister John Graham said the ramp was a long-overdue improvement for cyclists, while becoming an architecturally sensitive addition to renowned engineer John Bradfield’s famous Coathanger.

“John Bradfield’s original vision for the Harbour Bridge incorporated space for bicycles on the deck of the bridge, but they were squeezed out by the growth of vehicle traffic by 1962,” he said. “Bike traffic across the Harbour Bridge has surged in recent years, and this ramp will unlock even more by delivering equality of access.”

The average number of cyclists crossing the bridge has risen by nearly 40 per cent over the past few years to 1221 a day in 2025, and Transport for NSW expects that figure to double after the ramp’s opening.

Transport for NSW project manager Scott Gibbons said the ramp’s design had been sensitive to its location.

“It’s not every day that you get to build something in such a unique, special area with so much history and character,” he said. “The design has been really sensitive towards that, complementing and being designed delicately around Milsons Point Station entrance.”

Hundreds of e-bikes were held in a fenced off area in front of St Mary’s Cathedral over new year.

An eight-metre section of parapet – or wall – had to be removed from the bridge to allow cyclists to weave their way onto the ramp. It was craned off the bridge and relocated to a spot near the bottom of the ramp, in a nod to the bridge’s history.

British tourists Oscar Tully and Libby McNavoe, who navigated the 55 stairs on Monday on their way from the central city to Manly, said the new addition to the Harbour Bridge could encourage more people to cycle. “Honestly, a ramp could be amazing,” Tully said.

Cyclists will still have the option to use the stairs, which will remain open. A security guard will be at the bottom of the ramp to ensure it is used by cyclists only.

Scores of other cycleways have been completed in Sydney over the past year, including the six-kilometre GreenWay in the inner west and five kilometres of shared pathways in Kogarah as part of the M6 motorway project. A new cyclepath at the western end of Oxford Street in the central city has proven popular, averaging 3428 cyclists a day in November.

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