City West Link is a link road in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. It makes up a section of the A4 between

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

, Haberfield and

Five Dock Five Dock is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Five Dock is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Location Fi ...

. As such, it provides an alternative route to

Parramatta Road Parramatta Road is the major historical east-west artery of metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting the Sydney CBD with Parramatta. It is the easternmost part of the Great Western Highway. Since the 1990s its role has been a ...

into the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

from the

Inner West The Inner West of Sydney is an area directly west of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs that make up the Inner West are predominantly located along the southern shore of Port Jackson (Parramatta River) ...

. It is part of the A4 corridor. It will be bypassed by the

WestConnex WestConnex is a predominantly underground motorway scheme in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. As of 2022, it is partially completed and partially still under construction. A joint project of the New South Wales and Australian governments, t ...

project when completed in 2023.

History

Construction

The City West Link, much to the disappointment of some local residents, simply involved the upgrade of existing roads and streets to at least four lanes. The process was carried out in four stages: *Stage One: (December 1991) An underpass beneath Victoria Road opened. *Stage Two: (February 1993) Upgrades from The Crescent at

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

to Catherine Street at

Lilyfield Lilyfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilyfield is located 6 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Lilyfie ...

, using Brenan Street. This section used a temporary one-way system to deliver traffic to Lilyfield Road. *Stage Three: (May 1995) Dobroyd Parade and Wattle Street reconstruction was completed, providing four lanes between

and

Hawthorne Canal The Hawthorne Canal, a southern tributary of the Parramatta River, is a New South Wales State Heritage Register, heritagelisted canal, artificial waterway located in the western reaches of Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour, in the Inner West (Sydney) ...

, parallel to

Iron Cove Iron Cove is a bay on the Parramatta River, in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately due west of Sydney's central business district. It is surrounded by the suburbs of Birchgrove, Balmai ...

and

Iron Cove Creek Iron Cove Creek (also known as Dobroyd Stormwater Channel), a southern tributary of the Parramatta River, is an urban stream west of Sydney Harbour, located in the inner-western Sydney suburbs of Croydon, Ashfield, Haberfield and Five Dock in ...

. *Stage Four: (December 2000) Extended the road from Catherine Street to Dobroyd Parade. A new bridge was constructed over Hawthorne Canal. The City West Link then became part of Metroad 4 (now A4), relieving a congested section of Parramatta Road. The project is in some ways very similar to the South Eastern Arterial link in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. That road was built between two freeways and ultimately had to be rebuilt without traffic signalled at-grade intersections. The only difference between the two is that the available space for the Melbourne road allowed the conversion without any land resumption, whereas the City West Link Road is surrounded by properties which are in places only a few feet from the road edge. Like so many other new road projects in Sydney, the available land space and cash resources available lead to either too few traffic lanes or at-grade intersections.

Post-Opening

Motorists began complaining early in 2004 that the road had already become congested, less than four years after opening. The road ultimately feeds into Parramatta Road, thus congestion points on Parramatta Road have simply been moved to different areas rather than relieved altogether. In 2005, a major bottleneck at the eastern end was removed. Previously eastbound traffic on the link had to merge from two lanes into one, just before joining Victoria Road west of the

Anzac Bridge The Anzac Bridge is an eight-lane cable-stayed bridge that carries the Western Distributor (A4) across Johnstons Bay between Pyrmont and Glebe Island (part of the suburb of Rozelle), on the western fringe of the central business district of ...

. There are now two lanes from the west link merging with the three from Victoria Road, to make four lanes over the Anzac Bridge.

Connection to M4

After the opening of City West Link, the

Roads & Traffic Authority The Roads & Traffic Authority (RTA) was an agency of the New South Wales Government responsible for major road infrastructure, licensing of drivers, and registration of motor vehicles. The RTA directly managed state roads and provided fundin ...

had plans to connect the City West Link to the M4 motorway, completely bypassing Parramatta Road. Included in the project was the removal of the at-grade intersections on the City West Link for through traffic. The plan was complicated, and involved building bridges for the City West Link Road to pass over at-grade intersections, some of which made provision for only one traffic lane in each direction. Residents and advocacy groups voiced fears that this would worsen current congestion problems. The whole project was cancelled in late 2004 In the 2010s, the project was revived as the

project that involved a tunnel being built instead. The tunnel, known as M4 East, opened in July 2019.

References

External links