Princes Motorway

Princes Motorway F6 Freeway / Southern Freeway New South Wales
Princes Motorway near Helensburgh
General information
Type	Motorway
Length	53 km (33 mi)
Opened	1975–1987
Route number(s)	M1 Entire route
Former route number	National Route 1 (mid 1980s-2013) F6 (1975-mid 1980s)
Major junctions
North end	Princes Highway Waterfall, New South Wales
	Appin Road Picton Road Princes Highway
South end	Princes Highway Yallah, New South Wales
Location(s)
Major suburbs / towns	Helensburgh, Wollongong, Dapto
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in New South Wales

The Princes Motorway, formerly known as the Southern Freeway^[1] is a motorway linking Sydney to Wollongong. It currently is designated as part of the M1, but it once was signposted as F6 (Freeway Route 6) and is still commonly known by this latter name.

As Wollongong and Port Kembla are important industrial centres, freight traffic is heavy. Despite the current decline of the local steel industry, emergence of Wollongong as a commuter city of Sydney has kept the freeway and the adjacent Mount Ousley Road busy.

History

Princes Motorway; Waterfall onramp, looking south.

The Princes Motorway route starts at Waterfall in the north, taking more or less a parallel route with Princes Highway until the sprawling Bulli Tops interchange (with Appin Road (State Route 69) and Princes Highway). There it continues downhill, avoiding the steep Bulli Pass, and bypasses Wollongong CBD, through Gwynneville and continues for 20 kilometres (12 mi) to Yallah where it rejoins the Princes Highway.

From its opening on 24 July 1975, the Waterfall to Bulli Tops section of the then Southern Freeway incurred a toll.^[2] This part of the freeway did not feature the Helensburgh Interchange (which subsequently opened in February 2000). The toll operated for 20 years, which was 10 years short of its intended operating length. The main reason for this was local residents complaining that the F3 Freeway (Now Pacific Motorway (Sydney–Newcastle)) had their toll dropped in 1988, which was at the time intended to be dropped as its loans had been fully paid off unlike those of the F6.

After much pressure the toll for the F6 freeway was removed on 30 July 1995 as the loans had been repaid. Remnants of the tollbooths are still able to be seen at the old toll plaza at Waterfall. One of the lanes and very faint markings are still intact. Heading southbound one set of warning lights to slow down for the toll plaza are also still intact minus signage. There is also signage on Bulli Pass and Appin Road which are now coverplating the words "TOLLWAY F6 2km" and "TOLLWAY 1 1km".

In early 2013, as part of the New South Wales alphanumeric route conversion process, the road name changed from the Southern Freeway to the Princes Motorway. The new name has also been applied to what was formerly known as Mount Ousley Road.^[3]

In November 2015, it was announced that the section between Bulli Tops and Picton Road would have a third lane added in each direction.^[4]

Extension

Captain Cook Bridge

Taren Point Road

The six-lane Captain Cook Bridge (connecting Sans Souci to Taren Point) and a short joining section of Taren Point Road to the south are the only parts of the extension to be built

The County of Cumberland Scheme of 1948 outlined an F6 extension from the current-day end-point at Waterfall.^[5] As such, an F6 corridor was set aside that passes through the Royal National Park from Waterfall to Campbell Road in St Peters. The land reservation tract currently passes through the suburbs of Loftus, Kirrawee, Gymea, Miranda, Taren Point, Sandringham, Sans Souci, Ramsgate, Monterey, Kogarah, Brighton-Le-Sands, Rockdale, Banksia, Kyeemagh and Tempe.^[6]

Of the proposed extension, only the six-lane Captain Cook Bridge and a short connecting section of Taren Point Road to the south have been built. Establishment of the bridge section of the F6 extension began in 1962, expedited to replace the ferry service that had operated from Taren Point to Sans Souci since 1916. Captain Cook Bridge was opened for general use in May 1965.^[7]

Road surface, Captain Cook Bridge

In the original plan, the F6 would connect to the Western Distributor.^[8] Then, in August 1977, premier Neville Wran cancelled the inner section of the F6 link, which at the time had an estimated construction cost of $96 million.^[7] At the same time, Wran announced that the inner section reservation would be sold off and the proposed extension would instead terminate at St Peters, a medium density industrial suburb.^[7][9][10] This would create a congestion problem similar to that of the M4 Western Motorway, ending at the arterial Parramatta Road in Strathfield, New South Wales.^[11] Like the F6, the M4 in its original form was intended to connect to the Western Distributor, a link which the Wran government cancelled in October 1977.^[8] The proposed M4 extension, the M4 East tunnel would extend the current motorway from Strathfield to the City West Link,^[12] itself connecting to the Western Distributor via Victoria Road and the Anzac Bridge.^[13] There has also been a proposal for an extension of the M4 East known as the "Inner-West Motorway", comprising a tunnel running underneath the Inner West of Sydney and connecting to the M5 East at St Peters.^[14][15][16] Thus, under the new plan, the F6 would connect to this proposed tunnel.^[17]

Prior to the 2007 federal election, the Liberal-Nationals (Coalition) promised to allocate A$20 million towards planning for the F6 extension.^[18] Although the Coalition did not win the 2007 election,^[19] the funding was once again promised at the subsequent 2010 federal election. This funding would ensure the project is "shovel ready" when funding becomes available.^[20]

Exits and interchanges

Princes Motorway
Northbound exits	Distance to Sydney (km)	Distance to Nowra (km)	Southbound exits
End Princes Motorway continues as Princes Highway to Sydney	45	116	Start Princes Motorway from Princes Highway
			Woronora Dam Old Princes Highway
no exit	55	110	Helensburgh, Stanwell Park Lawrence Hargrave Drive
Darkes Forest, Helensburgh Old Princes Highway	53	108	no exit
Maddens Plains, Darkes Forest Old Princes Highway	63	98	Maddens Plains, Darkes Forest Old Princes Highway
no exit	64	97	Appin, Campbelltown Appin Road
no exit	65	96	Thirroul, Bulli Princes Highway
Appin, Campbelltown Appin Road			no exit
Picton Picton Road	74	87	Picton Picton Road
Clive Bissell Drive	75	86	no exit
no exit	78	83	New Mount Pleasant Road
no exit	80	81	Wollongong Mount Ousley Road
Keiraville Northfields Avenue	81.5	79.5	Gwynneville, Keiraville, University of Wollongong University Avenue
Gwynneville Irvine Street
To North Wollongong, Bulli Northern Distributor	82	79	no exit
Dapto, Figtree, Wollongong Princes Highway	84	77	Wollongong, Figtree, Dapto Princes Highway
no exit	86	75	Coniston, Port Kembla Masters Road
Unanderra, Port Kembla Five Islands Road	88	73	Port Kembla, Unanderra Five Islands Road
Warrawong Northcliffe Drive	91	70	Warrawong Northcliffe Drive
no exit	93	68	Kanahooka, Dapto Kanahooka Road
no exit	95	66	Koonawarra, Dapto Fowlers Road
Dapto Princes Highway	98	63	End Princes Motorway continues as Princes Highway to Kiama / Nowra
Start Princes Motorway from Princes Highway

See also

• Freeways in Australia
• Freeways in New South Wales
• Captain Cook Bridge

References

Road infrastructure in regional New South Wales Motorways Hume Motorway Hunter Expressway Pacific Motorway (Brisbane – Brunswick Heads) Pacific Motorway (Sydney–Newcastle) Princes Motorway National highways Barton Highway Federal Highway Hume Highway New England Highway Newell Highway Sturt Highway Highways Barrier Highway Bruxner Highway Carnarvon Highway Castlereagh Highway Cobb Highway Great Western Highway Gwydir Highway Illawarra Highway Kamilaroi Highway Kings Highway Mid-Western Highway Mitchell Highway Monaro Highway Murray Valley Highway Olympic Highway Oxley Highway Pacific Highway Princes Highway Riverina Highway Silver City Highway Snowy Mountains Highway Local highways Alpine Way Appin Road Barry Way Bathurst-Ilford Road Bells Line of Road Bucketts Way Burley Griffin Way Bylong Valley Way Camden Valley Way Castlereagh Highway Central Coast Highway Escort Way Fossickers Way Golden Highway Goldfields Way Goulburn-Oberon Road Henry Lawson Way Irrigation Way Kidman Way Lachlan Valley Way Memorial Drive Newcastle Inner City Bypass Newcastle Link Road O'Connell Road Old Hume Highway Picton Road Princes Highway Putty Road Remembrance Drive Summerland Way Thunderbolts Way Waterfall Way Wombeyan Caves Road Yass Valley Way Bridges Denison Bridge Grafton Bridge Harwood Bridge Hampden Bridge Macleay River Bridge Martin Bridge Mooney Mooney Bridge Nowra Bridge Sea Cliff Bridge Tea Gardens-Hawks Nest Bridge Tunnels Cudgen Road Tunnel St Helena Tunnel Proposals Sydney Bypass