Earlier this month, a report was released listing Sydney as having Australia’s best public transport network. And while it’s true that our public transport system is on the up (with the game-changing Sydney Metro set to open in early August), driving across the city still leaves something to be desired – with privately-owned toll roads making traversing Sydney by car expensive, and often pretty inefficient. And that’s exactly why the construction of the new Western Harbour Tunnel is big news for Sydneysiders – the stretch of tunnel will offer motorists a super-efficient route beneath Sydney Harbour, with an opening date slated for 2028.
Running beneath the harbour from Rozelle to Cammeray, the twin, three-lane tunnels are the first new crossing of the harbour in more than 30 years. The 6.5-kilometre, six-lane stretch of subterranean road will ultimately connect to the M8 motorway. Once complete, the new route is set to make driving across the city a whole lot more speedy – shaving 20 minutes off journey times between North Sydney and Sydney Olympic Park or Leichhardt.
Work on Western Harbour Tunnel began back in 2021, and construction of Stage 2 has now reached a major milestone – with one kilometre of tunnel now complete, and work on the main roadway now progressing under the Warringah Freeway. In building the tunnel, road header machines have removed 1,000 tonnes of rock every day, with five road header machines currently at work beneath the Warringah Freeway – advancing by 20-25 metres every week.
As well as cutting journey times for people travelling north from Western Sydney and vice-versa, the tunnel is set to ease traffic conditions across other routes – reducing traffic on the Western Distributor by 35 per cent, the Harbour Tunnel by 20 per cent and the Harbour Bridge by 17 per cent.
And in excellent news, it’s remaining in public hands, as part of what Minister for Roads John Graham describes as the government’s “plans to remake a fairer toll road network for Sydney”.
You can learn more about the project over here.
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