The operator of WestConnex, owned by a consortium led by toll road company Transurban, estimates the motorway tunnel will cut journey times between Parramatta and Mascot by up to 40 minutes.
Head said other Sydney road projects would be completed in the coming years, such as Western Submarine Tunnel It means WestConnex will be a “continuous, progressive piece of the puzzle” of Sydney’s motorway network.
“We’re still going to do this ongoing open-heart bypass surgery on the highway network while the patient is awake. Our mission is to try to build that infrastructure and minimize disruption,” he said.
Inner west MP Pauline Lockie, who has been critical of WestConnex, said the government needed to fund traffic calming measures in the suburbs around St Peters interchange to limit disruption caused by vehicles flowing from the tunnel into local roads.
“It’s generating more traffic, and [WestConnex] Tunnels alone are not enough to reduce traffic on surface roads,” she said.
Phase 1 of WestConnex, a Widened part of M4 Between Parramatta and Homebush, opened in 2017, followed by M4 East Tunnel Extended to Haberfield in 2019, M8 2020. The latter is a replica of the M5 between Kingsgrove and St Peters.
Traffic from the M4-M8 Link will keep streets such as Gardeners Road in Mascot busier until the road link between St Peters and the airport is completed within two years.Credit:Kate Glady
some motorists park in the driveway or back up at the entrance Head to the M4 East Tunnel in the weeks after it opens in 2019 to avoid paying tolls.
Authorities want to avoid a repeat of drivers mistakenly veering onto the toll road when the M4-M8 Link opens, particularly where the two lanes of Haberfield Wattle Street enter the new tunnel. They urged motorists to familiarize themselves with their journey.
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Hyde said the message to motorists driving into tunnels they didn’t intend to enter was to “keep going”. “We’ve seen people support — it’s not a good idea,” he said.
Distance-based tolls are capped at $10.47 per trip for cars and motorcycles and $31.40 for trucks on the 33km WestConnex network.However, they will up 6% On January 1, the annual upgrade rate for the highway network went into effect.
Final part of WestConnex – a complex underground interchange In Rozelle – due to be completed by the end of next year.
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