The North Western Expressway and the Lane Cove Valley Expressway was a planned but now cancelled freeway route in

Sydney, New South Wales 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 Mountains ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, intended to link the Sydney CBD to its north-western suburbs, and ultimately the Sydney–Newcastle Freeway to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. The entirety of the Sydney to Newcastle route was to be known as the F3 freeway, a name that remains as a common name of the Sydney–Newcastle Freeway (now Pacific Motorway). The North Western Expressway refers to the section between the Western Distributor and Victoria Road at Huntleys Point, while the Lane Cove Valley Expressway refers to the section between Huntleys Point and Wahroonga, passing through

Lane Cove Valley In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each ...

History

The route was planned as early as 1962 (even providing a proposed freeway "dotted line" in the UBD street directories of the 1970s). The original route was to start at the Western Distributor, connecting to

Gladesville Bridge Gladesville Bridge is a heritage-listed concrete arch road bridge that carries Victoria Road over the Parramatta River, linking the Sydney suburbs of Huntleys Point and Drummoyne, in the local government areas of Canada Bay and Hunter's Hill, ...

via a new elevated freeway. The route would continue approximately to the intersection of

Delhi Road Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Epping Road Epping Road is a arterial road located on the North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Epping Road is a major route linking the lower North Shore and Sydney central business district to the north western suburbs of the upper North ...

The section from

Fig Tree Bridge The Fig Tree Bridge is a road bridge that carries Burns Bay Road across the Lane Cove River, and connects the suburbs of Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Hunters Hill in the south and Linley Point, New South Wales, Linley Point in the north, locate ...

Hunters Hill Hunters Hill is a suburb of the lower north shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Hunters Hill is located north-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area ...

and the Western Distributor were the only completed sections, with the former section completed in 1965 with the opening of

Tarban Creek Bridge The Tarban Creek Bridge is a prestressed concrete arch bridge that carries the Burns Bay Road across the Tarban Creek, located west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The bridge is situated between the Glade ...

. Work on stage one, from Ultimo to Pyrmont Bridge Road, began in 1974. Twelve people were arrested during protests in Ultimo against the expressway, a

green ban A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. They were mainly done in Australia in the 1970s, led by the Builders Labo ...

was imposed by the

Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and some ...

, and the Whitlam government threatened to cut off $42 billion in road funding if the NSW government continued with construction. As a result, construction was suspended. The Wran Government cancelled the project in 1977, as a part of a change in government policy regarding freeways.

Subsequent proposals

After cancellation, the section between Fig Tree Bridge and

Lane Cove Road Lane Cove Road is a major suburban arterial road in Sydney, Australia. It forms part of A3 and is located in the Ryde local government area. The southern end of Lane Cove Road connects with Devlin Street at Blaxland Road at Top Ryde, about ...

became part of the proposed

Castlereagh Freeway The Hills Motorway (also known as the Hills M2 Motorway, M2 Motorway or simply M2) is a tollway in north-western Sydney, Australia, owned by toll road operator Transurban. It forms majority of Sydney's M2 route and part of the 110 km Sydn ...

. The section between Delhi Road and Epping Road was shown on a 1984 Department of Main Roads map, but was removed by 1988 when that map was reprinted. The Castlereagh Freeway evolved to become the North West Transport Link, now the

M2 Hills Motorway The Hills Motorway (also known as the Hills M2 Motorway, M2 Motorway or simply M2) is a tollway in north-western Sydney, Australia, owned by toll road operator Transurban. It forms majority of Sydney's M2 route and part of the 110 km Sydn ...

, which was completed in 1997 and follows the originally planned route from Epping Road to Seven Hills. The section between Fig Tree Bridge and Epping Road was abandoned. The corridor of land to link the F3 and the M2 via the Lane Cove Valley was reserved for road use since 1988. It was abandoned by the state government in 1996, but was retained as open space. An alternative F3 to M2 link has been built as the

NorthConnex NorthConnex is a twin-tube motorway tunnel in northern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, opened on 31 October 2020. It acts as a tunnel bypass of the congested Pennant Hills Road, connecting the M1 Pacific Motorway to the M2 Hills Motorway. ...

and opened in 2020, under a different alignment.

References

{{Road infrastructure in Sydney Highways in Sydney Cancelled highway projects in Australia Green bans

History

Subsequent proposals

See also

References