Sydney–Newcastle Freeway

The Sydney-Newcastle Freeway is a 127 km (79 mi) stretch of motorway linking Sydney to the Central Coast, Newcastle and Hunter regions of New South Wales. It is part of the AusLink road corridor between Sydney and Brisbane, carrying the route designation.

The freeway is also identified as the F3 by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and locals and is signposted every 1 km at the median crossover to differentiate from with other freeways.

Route

At its southern end, the freeway starts from Pennant Hills Road, Wahroonga, near its junction with the Pacific Highway in Sydney's north. The freeway goes under the Pacific Highway at Pearce's Corner and heads north, skirting the western edge of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and running parallel with the railway line until it descends to the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn. After crossing the river, the Hawkesbury River interchange at Mooney Mooney provides access to Brooklyn and related river communities. The motorway passes through the Brisbane Water National Park, and the Calga interchange gives access to Peats Ridge and the Mount White interchange. At Calga there are major heavy vehicle checking stations on both northbound and southbound sections to assess compliance and roadworthiness of trucks. The freeway crosses Mooney Mooney Creek with the 480 m (1,575 ft) long, 75 m (246 ft) high Mooney Mooney Bridge before it reaches the first major interchange on the Central Coast at Kariong.

After Kariong, the motorway continues through rural and semi-rural areas of the Central Coast with interchanges at Ourimbah, Tuggerah, Warnervale and Kiar, near Doyalson. From the Doyalson interchange the freeway continues to the west of Lake Macquarie with interchanges near Morisset, Cessnock, Toronto and Cardiff.

After the Cardiff interchange a link road takes traffic into Newcastle via Wallsend while the motorway continues north to reach its end with a 2-lane roundabout at the junction of Weakleys Drive and John Renshaw Drive, Beresfield. From here the National Highway route continues to Brisbane via the New England Highway (accessed via Weakleys Drive), while traffic on Highway 1 takes John Renshaw Drive and the New England Highway eastwards to meet the Pacific Highway at Hexham. There are rumble strips (perceptual countermeasures) at the end of the freeway to augment road signage in alerting drivers to the end of the 110 km/h freeway speed limit and to slow traffic down.

Interchanges

History

Planning for the freeway began in 1952, with the aim of providing a high-speed replacement for a section of the Pacific Highway that had been built in 1928 and was struggling to cope with the increased traffic. It was planned that the freeway would connect to the freeway systems being proposed for both Sydney and Newcastle, providing a city-to-city freeway link. However, for several reasons the goal and route of the freeway changed significantly so that it bypasses Newcastle rather than going into it.

The route between Mount White and Kariong was originally planned to go further east than the current route with an easier crossing of Mooney Mooney Creek. By the time that construction on this section was to begin, resistance from the National Parks and Wildlife Service to the proposed route forced the government to take a route through Calga which at the time would have formed part of a route to Singleton.

The route through Wyong Shire also changed; instead of passing along the western edge of the Tuggerah Lakes, development in that area forced the freeway to move further west with a link road being constructed to meet the Pacific Highway near Doyalson.

Perhaps the most significant effect on the freeway's route and its connections was the anti-freeway movement of 1972. Strong public resistance to freeways being constructed within cities along with less than favourable results from government inquiries resulted in unconstructed freeway projects being cancelled and those under construction being revised or cut short. For the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway, this meant that the connecting Lane Cove Valley and North Western Expressways in Sydney would not be built - forcing traffic to travel along the Pacific Highway between Wahroonga and the city. In addition, the freeway would now go to the west of Lake Macquarie rather than the east and bypass Newcastle. Sections of State Highway 123, one of the two expressway routes that the freeway would have connected to in Newcastle, have been constructed (with calls to complete the whole route between Bennetts Green and Sandgate), while the freeway route between Belmont and Bennetts Green and the connecting expressway route to Merewether are still reserved with the possibility that they could be constructed in the future.

The major stages in the construction of the freeway are:^[2]

• April 1963 - Construction begins on a 7 km section of dual carriageways from the Hawkesbury River to Mount White. This section was opened as a toll road in June 1965. The toll was removed in 1990 when the Federal Government decreed that all National Highways should be toll free.
• December 1967 - Opening of Berowra to Hawkesbury River section as a toll road.
• April 1979 - Opening of the current 6 lane Hawkesbury River bridge. At this time the toll from each of the north and south sections open (20 cents for each section) was combined with the new bridge (which linked both sections) for a toll of 50 cents. This was collected at the existing Berowra toll booths.
• December 1983 - Opening of the Somersby to Wallarah Creek section.
• December 1986 - Opening of a 15 km (9 mi) section between Calga and Somersby
• 22 March 1989 - Berowra to Wahroonga section opened^[3]
• December 1990 - Freeway completed from Wallarah Creek to Palmer's Road
• December 1993 - Palmer's Road to Minmi section opened
• December 1997 - The second "Missing link" between Ourimbah and Kangy Angy opened.
• December 1998 - Final stage of freeway opened between Minmi and John Renshaw Drive, Beresfield.
• December 2004 - Completion of widening between Calga and Jolls Bridge.
• November 2009 - Completion of six lanes from Wahroonga to Kariong achieved.

"F3" Designation

In addition to the National Highway 1 designation, the freeway at one stage carried the Freeway Route 3 (F3) designation. This route numbering system, introduced in 1973, was to provide distinctive route numbering and signage for freeways in Sydney and the surrounding areas. Although the route was never signed with the F3 route marker (the numbering system was removed in the late 1980s), the route is now widely known as the F3, with this title being used not only colloquially but on all state and federal government documents and web sites. The median crossover signs (located every 1 km) feature an F3 identification sign; in addition, the sign at the Wahroonga entrance to the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway also reads F3 FREEWAY.

Traffic disruption

The freeway is one of the few direct routes between Sydney and the Central Coast, and is the major road route for road transport to the Hunter region, northern NSW and Queensland. The freeway thus carries a heavy mix of commuter traffic, road freight transport, and (periodically) holiday and recreational travellers. It often suffers from traffic disruptions, generally associated with traffic volume and congestion related to on-road breakdowns and vehicle accidents, or natural disasters (in particular, bushfire).^[4][5]

Traffic on the freeway is frequently affected by vehicle crashes, often involving trucks.^[6][7] These events have encouraged the NSW motoring organisation NRMA to call for more freight to be moved by rail to reduce the number of trucks using the freeway.^[8]

Bushfires have caused closure of the freeway and the nearby railway line and Pacific Highway between the Sydney Basin and the Hawkesbury River on a number of occasions in recent decades. One such event of this type was recorded on 21 and 22 January 2007, when a fire broke out in the adjoining Kuring-gai Chase National Park. The fire forced the closure of the two roads and the railway line between Sydney and the Central Coast, resulting in extended disruption to traffic flow.

Because of the frequency of these disruptions to traffic flow, arguments for a second major freeway north from the Sydney metropolitan area continue to be pushed forward.^[9][10]

This particularly includes the Federal Government's proposal for a new motorway connecting the Sydney-Newcastle freeway near Mount White to the northwestern corner of the M7.

Following criticism of significant delays due to accidents and blockages,^[11] the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is in the process of constructing a $28 million emergency plan for the freeway which involves development of a 40 km/h contraflow traffic scheme to allow vehicles to travel around an accident.^[12]

Traffic volume

The Annual average daily traffic (AADT) data from the Roads and Traffic Authority showed a decline in traffic volume on the freeway near its southern end at Wahroonga, from 78,600 in 2002 to approximately 76,600 in 2005 and then to 75,800 in 2006.^[9]

The 2004 AADT figures for other locations on the freeway include 73,400 at Mooney Mooney, just north of the Hawkesbury River bridge, 60,100 near Wyong, 38,500 near Wyee, 27,000 near Freemans Waterhole and 33,000 near its northern terminus at Beresfield.^[13]

Upgrades and proposed connections

Plans are currently underway for extensions at and near both ends of the F3:

• A freeway standard Sydney Bypass has been intended as part of the National Highway system for decades. At the southern end, an underground route will link the freeway at Pearce's Corner, Wahroonga with the M2 Motorway near the Pennant Hills Road interchange. This will provide the motorway standard missing link between the F3 and the Sydney Orbital Network that was originally to be provided by the cancelled Lane Cove Valley Freeway section of the North West Expressway.^[14] Many previous corridor's have been proposed and all have been abandoned. Due to community concern, The Honorable Mahla Pearlman carried out an independent review, which was completed in August 2007. The review concluded that the proposed tunnels under Pennant Hills Road should proceed, but urged that planning for the longer term connection between the F3 and the M7 should also commence immediately.^[9]

• Towards the northern end, the Hunter Expressway will branch off the freeway at the Newcastle Link Road interchange and connect to the New England Highway at the Belford Bends Deviation west of Branxton. This will allow traffic to bypass Maitland and its surrounding suburbs. Funding for that road was announced in May 2009, with construction commencing immediately and taking 4 years.

• As part of the upgrade of the Pacific Highway between Hexham and the New South Wales/Queensland border, a freeway link will be constructed between the F3 near Black Hill and the Raymond Terrace Bypass.^[15] This section is currently a major bottleneck during holiday and long weekend periods, with delays lasting hours not uncommon. The layout of the two bridges at Hexham was designed primarily for local commuter traffic to and from Newcastle, rather than for access to the current end of the freeway. Northbound traffic from the freeway uses a single lane ramp onto the northbound Hexham Bridge, while southbound traffic must use the right lane of the southbound bridge to access the right turn lanes at traffic lights just past the end of the bridge. When completed, freeway conditions will extend to the northern end of the Raymond Terrace bypass.

• The Southern section from Wahroonga to just north of Ku-ring-gai Chase Road was originally built six lanes wide. The section between Cowan and Ku-ring-gai Chase Road has been completed as of November 2009^[16] and is now 6 lanes wide, having been upgraded from 4 lanes. This work was completed in Three Stages; Stage 1 - Cowan to Berowra (3.4 km (2 mi), Started December 2006 - Completed September 2008) , Stage 2 - Berowra to Mount Kuring-Gai (4.9 km (3 mi), Started March 2008 - Completed September 2009) and Stage 3 - Mount Kuring-Gai to Mount Colah (4.2 km (3 mi), Started September 2008 - Completed November 2009). The widening having been completed, the F3 provides a minimum of 6 lanes for 43 km (27 mi) from Wahroonga to Kariong. The upgrade also included a fourth stage which involved the resurfacing of the F3 from Mount Colah to Wahroonga (5 km (3 mi), started September 2008 - completed November 2009), as well as the addition of a truck parking area underneath the Pacific Highway interchange at Wahroonga.

See also

• Freeways in Australia
• Freeways in New South Wales

References

External links

• Sydney-Newcastle Freeway at Ozroads Detailed site containing many existing and historical photos.
• NSW RTA F3 Real-Time Traffic Cameras