[Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

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Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

Update on WestConnex and NorthConnex Projects -

'New M4': complete, opened 2017. The existing M4 surface motorway was widened, and was also extended 5 km eastwards underground towards Sydney's CBD. Traffic emerges onto City West Link, which morphs into the CBD's Western Distributor motorway.

M8 first stage: complete, opened mid 2020. This 9 km tunnel, partially parallel to the existing 7 km M5 tunnel, reaches towards Sydney's CBD from the SW suburbs. It temporarily ends at St Peters stack interchange.

NorthConnex: complete, opened late 2020. This 9 km tunnel connects the southern end of M1 Pacific Motorway (which comes from Brisbane) into Sydney's orbital motorway.

M8-M4 link: tunnelling broken through, fit-out in progress, due to open in 2023. This 5 km tunnel will extend M8 northwards from one of the stack's five arms, and then westwards, to meet the end of M4.

Rozelle interchange: in construction, due to open in 2023. This is located where M8 meets M4, providing exits from both of those routes onto City West Link (to CBD and Harbour Bridge) and Iron Cove Bridge (to Sydney's NW suburbs). It also provides a free 1.5 km underground route from Glebe Bridge to Iron Cove Bridge. The interchange in total encompasses about 6 km of twin tunnel,

Sydney Gateway: in construction, due to open in 2024. This direct motorway link into the Sydney Airport terminals runs 3 km southwards from one arm of the St Peters stack.

In 2024, a fully-underground drive from the southern entrance of M8 to the Iron Cove exit of Rozelle interchange, a realistic journey, will run for almost 20 km.

End of update. Much information available online, including youtube and vimeo.
bart
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by bart »

Is there a plan for a (south)western extension of the M8? If it's being extended to the M4 to provide a north-south route I'm a bit confused by the fact that it shadows the M5 rather than having access for traffic to/from Sylvania.
Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

bart wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 20:26 Is there a plan for a (south)western extension of the M8? If it's being extended to the M4 to provide a north-south route I'm a bit confused by the fact that it shadows the M5 rather than having access for traffic to/from Sylvania.
A western extension of M8: no. M8 merges into M5 as they both head westwards. M5 then gradually turns south-westwards and eventually splits into (a) M31, running SW all the way to Melbourne, and (b) M7, running NW, forming the western half of Sydney's orbital road.

There will be a northern-eastern underground extension of M8, though use of that number is conjecture at present. Three related and imminent projects form that extension: the Warringah Freeway Upgrade, the Western Harbour Tunnel, and the Beaches Link Tunnel, to be executed in that order.

The significant new underground motorway in the south will be the M6. It will branch off from the recently completed M8 section, using tunnel stubs already built-in about halfway along, and head southwards, passing below the M5. Stage 1, just a few km in length, is about to begin construction. A further three stages will eventually take it southwards to join the existing M1 Princes Motorway, which services the NSW south coast.

M6's stage-one destination will be the suburb of Kogarah. The suburb you mention, Sylvania, lies on the current non-motorway route southwards, the A1. A better understanding may be gained from the diagram in the fourth post down this page -
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33789&start=20
Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

WestConnex Stage 3 opened yesterday. You can now drive about 20km fully underground on 80km/hr D2/D3/D4, using the M8 and M4.

An above-ground extension of Westconnex called Sydney Gateway, improving access to the airport, will open in 2025, without tolls. The next tunnels to open will be Rozelle (underground) Interchange and Iron Cove Link (2023), M6 stage one (2026), and Western Harbour Tunnel (2028). The Beaches Link Tunnel and the Blackheath Tunnel are several years away.

Project website -
http://www.westconnex.com.au/

Opening day two-way drive-through -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALqPcdIL1Es&t=0s

( The video is from the Youtube channel of Great Aussie Drives -
https://www.youtube.com/@GreatAussieDrives )
Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

crazyknightsfan wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2020 02:14 No route number for NorthConnex, an absolutely laughable situation.
Nothconnex finally got a number: M11. See discussion a few posts up-thread.
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Truvelo »

The more I look at maps of these motorways the more laughable the UK becomes concerning the building of such roads.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir?
Big and complex.
Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

Rozelle Interchange, the final component of the Westconnex system, will open within a couple of weeks. Here's a news item about it (from ABC; link might not last for long) -
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-20/ ... /103103666

This link, driver animations from the WestConnex official site, should be semi-permanent -
https://caportal.com.au/tfnsw/inner-wes ... nterchange

And this one (journey planner) -
https://www.westconnex.com.au/plan-your ... estconnex/

And perhaps these two -
https://media.caapp.com.au/hibwrx
https://forms.office.com/Pages/Response ... swSlpONC4u

But probably not this one -
https://giphy.com/gifs/Fo1wSu8LHO3OAwSPvJ
Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

Week 1 of the Rozelle Interchange was a traffic disaster: massive driver confusion, and some glaring signage and road-marking errors exposed. The biggest problem was drivers not realising that one important part of the project is NOT tolled. Additionally, many Sydney drivers experienced ramp metering for the first time, and they were not impressed.

'Teething problems' were anticipated of course, and always occur when such a significant change is introduced. Over a few days, rapid adjusments and alterations have been made, signals tuned, motorist's route and lane decisions have matured, and things have settled. My own observations using G.Maps traffic layer show all to be working nicely.

Public reaction was both intelligent and useful, and uninformed and stupid. Driver behaviour was both patient, and recklessly dangerous. Press coverage was sensationalised.

This montage of news items (from Sydney channel 7) is typical of intense coverage by local TV -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLh2yP-hmc
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Bryn666
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Bryn666 »

Peter Freeman wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 22:11 Week 1 of the Rozelle Interchange was a traffic disaster: massive driver confusion, and some glaring signage and road-marking errors exposed. The biggest problem was drivers not realising that one important part of the project is NOT tolled. Additionally, many Sydney drivers experienced ramp metering for the first time, and they were not impressed.

'Teething problems' were anticipated of course, and always occur when such a significant change is introduced. Over a few days, rapid adjusments and alterations have been made, signals tuned, motorist's route and lane decisions have matured, and things have settled. My own observations using G.Maps traffic layer show all to be working nicely.

Public reaction was both intelligent and useful, and uninformed and stupid. Driver behaviour was both patient, and recklessly dangerous. Press coverage was sensationalised.

This montage of news items (from Sydney channel 7) is typical of intense coverage by local TV -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLh2yP-hmc
Once they sort this out, will work be done to improve the decaying and unattractive Parramatta Road above? It seems a waste to build this new infrastructure and not create liveable streets on bypassed routes.
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Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

Bryn666 wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2023 10:13 Once they sort this out, will work be done to improve the decaying and unattractive Parramatta Road above? It seems a waste to build this new infrastructure and not create liveable streets on bypassed routes.
It has always been the stated intention to do so. Will it really happen? I think so, but it will take some time: there's a lot of Paramatta Road. Also, the road will retain considerable local traffic: contrary to belief, inner Sydney is fairly dense.

Here are some planning documents, but they're high-level statements and aspirations, unless you delve deep into included links.
https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system ... 202023.pdf
https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/plans-f ... nt-program
https://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/develo ... ementation
https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projec ... oad-vision
https://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/live/e ... s/greenway
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Bryn666
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Bryn666 »

Being fairly dense lends itself to non-car based options, buses, cycling, even trams etc. Thankfully the Australians were wise enough to build wide streets to begin with so these competing modes can co-exist somewhat - you could still facilitate some traffic lanes and hand the rest over for other modes and still have room to play with.

It's fairly obvious the Sydney motorway network has been provided to get you across the city rather than to facilitate short trips around it, in this regard they've got the right idea. The big question mark is the tolling aspect.
Bryn
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Peter Freeman
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Re: [Sydney, Australia] - WestConnex and NorthConnex

Post by Peter Freeman »

Since Transurban owns almost all of Sydney's toll roads, if you want a quick look-up of each one's fit and history, this listing will help -
https://www.transurban.com/roads-and-projects/sydney
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