Bell's Line of Road

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Bells Line of Road is State Route 40.

The Bells Line of Road (State Route 40) is a major road in New South Wales and runs from North Richmond on the North-Western outskirts of Sydney to Bell in the Blue Mountains where it becomes Chifley Road.

The route was discovered in 1823 by Archibald Bell but was rarely used until World War II. The road was improved between 1939 and 1949 as it was seen by the government as being an alternative to the Great Western Highway and could be used for war efforts.

Today, the route is still used as an alternate route across the Blue Mountains and is also a popular tourist drive.

[edit] Future

For many years road lobby groups have been pushing for what they call a "superhighway" across the Blue Mountains. They claim that the poor roads leading to the Central West of New South Wales are impeding growth. For many years the Great Western Highway was the preferred route, but after studies found that a freeway would be too expensive to build along this route the idea was abandoned.

In 2002, road lobby groups secured $2 million in funding for a feasibility study into building a freeway following the Bells Line of Road. The proposed freeway would have linked to the M2 in Sydney and dropped into the Central West via Newnes Plateau. The study report, published in November 2004 concluded that, while feasible to build from an engineering perspective, it would not be economically feasible and would have massive impact on adjacent National Parks and local communities.

With the upgrading of Bells Line of Road now appearing unlikely, a proposal has been developed for an external Sydney Bypass, which would, as a side effect, significantly improve the connection between the Bathurst area and the port of Newcastle, particularly once the proposed link road between the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway and the New England Highway west of Branxton is also constructed. If this proposal goes ahead, it will also provide some traffic relief on Bells Line of Road and the Great Western Highway.